CHAPTER XXVI

ALCHEMY AND GOLD-MAKERS IN
MODERN TIMES

THAT there are many credulous people who still believe
in alchemy and the possibility of transmuting the baser
metals into gold and silver is evident from accounts which have
been published in recent times of men who have posed as adepts
and succeeded in extracting thousands of pounds from the
pockets of their dupes. So long as the greed for gold and the
desire to amass wealth quickly exists there will be those who are
ready to be deluded by the specious promises of cunning im¬
postors.

That this should have been true in earlier times, when super¬
stitious beliefs influenced all branches of science and emperors,
kings, and princes retained alchemists in their pay in the hope
of being able to replenish their depleted coffers, can to some
extent be understood, but that the great advances of modern
science can actually lead to the revival of the old beliefs in
the medieval alchemist is more difficult of comprehension.
Apparently recent discoveries have given the credulous renewed
hopes of obtaining riches by some marvellous processes of which
they are utterly ignorant, and “this,” says H. C. Bolton, “is
now fostered by devotion to esoteric studies.”

From the middle of the last century societies have been
formed in France devoted to the study of hermetic mysteries,
the members of which claim to study the processes of the al¬
chemists and compare them with the work of modern chemists,
in the hope, no doubt, of finding a golden reward.

The modern disciple of Hermes still believes in the Emerald
Table, and as late as 1854 Theodore Tiffereau sent to the

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LURE fif ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Academie des Sciences in Paris six treatises in which he claimed
to have discovered a method of converting silver into gold.

Within recent years Edward C. Brice, of Chicago, claimed to
have discovered a process for making gold from pure antimony.
The United States Patent Office refused to allow him to protect
his process until a test had been made by three assayers of the
Mint who should conduct the trial under Brice’s instructions.
Brice agreed, and the test was arranged, but the assayers found
that all commercial antimony contained traces of gold, and
that Brice did not even recover the whole of this by his
process.

Another American claimant was Edward Pinter, who an¬
nounced in 1891 that he possessed the Philosopher’s Stone
which had the power of multiplying gold to three times its
original bulk. In demonstrating this he took a sovereign and,
melting it in a crucible, added a quantity of his mysterious
powders to it. When it had cooled the gold in the crucible was
found to weigh three times its former weight. An analysis of
his powders showed that one contained a large percentage of
precipitated gold and the other some calomel. But this did not
deter him. He declared publicly that the gold, before being
multiplied, must stand in a certain acid for eighteen days, and
that during this time the fumes arising would be so noxious as
to be dangerous to human life. These fumes, indeed, were so
horrible that they drove all but himself from the room in which
the operation was taking place. A jeweller took the bait, and
Pinter, before he made the demonstration, asked him to deposit
in an acid bath for eighteen days the 90,000 dollars that were
to be multiplied. To this the jeweller agreed, and an empty
house that could be shut up during the time was taken in Balti¬
more. Meanwhile Pinter was called out of town and had not
returned when the eighteen days elapsed. The jeweller got
anxious, and in the end had the house broken open, when, to his
dismay, the 90,000 dollars which had been placed in the bath
had disappeared.

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ALCHEMY IN MODERN TIMES

About the same time yet another American, Dr Stephen
H. Emmens, claimed to have discovered a body intermediate
between gold and silver which was capable of being changed
into gold. This he called argentaurum. He established a
laboratory for the manufacture of gold from silver by his secret
process, in which mechanical treatment played an important
part. In April 1897 he sold to the United States Assay Office
six ingots of an alloy of silver and gold for the gross sum of 954
dollars as proof of his success in transmutation, but since that
time nothing seems to have been heard of him.

Europe also has not been without its alchemical revivalists, for
at the end of 1930 one Heinrich Kurschaldgen, who had been an
employee in a dye-works near Diisseldorf, in Germany, claimed
that he had discovered a process for transmuting the baser
elements into gold by splitting and recombining atoms. He
first demonstrated his process before an interested lawyer, who
was so convinced that he advanced a large sum of money for
the prosecution of this profitable operation on a larger scale.
According to one account of the demonstration made by Kur¬
schaldgen in his laboratory, his apparatus consisted of a battery
and several mysterious-looking boxes and bottles connected
with one another by wires. One of the bottles was filled with a
mixture of sand and tap-water. After some preliminary opera¬
tions, no doubt designed to deceive his dupe, the radiation
which was to split up and recombine the atoms was set to work,
and in about twenty minutes the contents of one of the bottles,
when shaken out, were seen to contain a few grains of what
appeared to be gold.

A prominent business-man in Cologne was then initiated into
the secret, and was so delighted by the result of another demon¬
stration made in his presence by the obliging alchemist that he
declared that he was ready to put £5000 into the business. Lie
is also said to have been instrumental in forming a German-
American syndicate to develop and exploit the great discovery,
and this company at once contributed £2500 to carry on the

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LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

work of manufacture. Kurschaldgen is said to have succeeded
in obtaining about £10,000 from his credulous victims before
the fraudulent nature of his manipulation of the sand and water
used in his process was eventually proved. When at length the
police were informed of his operations he was arrested and tried
at Diisseldorf on the charge of defrauding a number of persons
of £12,500. At the trial stories were told of his remarkable
eloquence, by means of which and his command of a few tech¬
nical phrases, together with the mysterious apparatus, he so
easily persuaded wealthy people to finance his experiments.
A technical witness stated that minute quantities of gold were
actually found in the bottles of sand and water through which
Kurschaldgen passed an electric current, but he pointed out
that it was easy to introduce the particles into the bottles, which
no doubt had been done. Another witness, who was a member
of an important commercial firm, declared that he still be¬
lieved in Kurschaldgen’s ability to make gold and did not
regret that he had let him have £750. However, Kurschaldgen
was found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months’ imprison¬
ment.

The most successful quack alchemist of modern times, who
even outrivals the famous Caetano, was Franz Tausend, whose
exploits aroused great excitement and interest in Central Europe
in 1929. This impostor, called by many of his compatriots the
“Cagliostro of Aubing,” was the son of a plumber and as a
young man followed his father’s calling at Aubing, near Munich.
He became interested in the study of chemistry, and after
reading all he could on the subject his ambition soared to extra¬
ordinary heights, for he aimed at evolving a new theory of
atomic and molecular structure by means of which he hoped to
astonish the world. He held that by skilful application of his
ideas lead might be transformed into gold, and began to boast
that he had actually performed this operation and could repeat
it whenever he wished.

It was first necessary to find the capital to exploit his discovery,
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ALCHEMY IN MODERN TIMES

and for this publicity was required. So Tausend advertised
in the newspapers, and this brought him in touch with his first
victim, a lady whom he persuaded to advance him £5000. On
obtaining the money he resolved to remove the scene of his
operations to the country and launch out on a large scale. He
first bought a castle at Eppan, near the little town of Bolzano,
in the South Tyrol, established himself with the title of Baron,
and gave out that he was a doctor of chemistry. Having sur¬
rounded himself with an air of mystery, which served to spread
his fame, he married a pretty restaurant waitress, whom he in¬
stalled as the chatelaine of the castle.

He then set out to enlarge his sphere of operations and to
attract the capitalists. He established a laboratory and tra¬
velled about Germany giving demonstrations which were so
cunningly carried out that he deceived men of business and
people of influence in different parts of the country. He got
people of wealth to back him up, and companies were formed
not only to make gold, but also to exploit Tausend’s other
reputed inventions, which covered a large field and included
the cheapening of the production of aluminium, the pre¬
paration of morphine from common salt, the cure of foot-
and-mouth disease, and a marvellous specific for arresting
bleeding.

One success followed another. A “Tausend Research Com¬
pany ” was founded by thirty prominent persons, who are said
to have included princes, generals, bank directors, and well-
known industrialists. Money poured in on every side, and he
deluded his victims by producing genuine gold now and again
which he declared he had manufactured by his process.

Meanwhile his dupes were bound to secrecy, and were
promised enormous profits, Tausend paying dazzling interim
dividends when individual shareholders grew importunate.
He protested that he was able to make gold from lead at the
comparatively modest rate of 88 pounds, of the value of
about £4488, a month, and that he expected to be soon in a

237

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

position to turn out tons of the precious metal at a time. A
well-known German general became interested in Tausend’s
discoveries and procured for him the equipment of larger
laboratories to carry on his researches. To him Tausend
revealed his supposed secret, and he became one of the thirty
members of the “ 164 Society,” so called after the key number
of Tausend’s “vibrational theory of atomic and molecular
structure.” This society was formed to develop the great
secret. The other members were to divide 20 per cent, of the
profits of the gold-making, which, however, were in no case to
exceed £500,000.

There is little doubt that Tausend could have kept his profit¬
able schemes going much longer had he not been seized with
the ambition to play the part of a great country magnate. He
began to spend money lavishly and bought another castle, where
he and his wife entertained on an extravagant scale.

At length one of his chief victims, a Munich banker, became
suspicious and informed the police, with the result that the
supposed alchemist and his wife were arrested and lodged in
gaol in Bolzano, whence they were transferred to Munich and
committed for trial.

The hearing revealed some remarkable facts showing how
easily many people of intelligence and education had been
deceived and victimized by a clever rogue. Some of the
witnesses suggested that Tausend was to some extent a victim
of self-deception, and others apparently still believed in his
ability to transmute lead into gold. One of these told the court
that he himself had produced the precious metal while working
alone according to Tausend’s formulas. Experts were called to
prove that the metal, alleged to have been produced by Tausend,
by means of which he had gulled his victims was not pure gold,
but a familiar alloy with silver which was used in the manu¬
facture of jewellery and was a regular article of commerce.
Tausend is said to have secured between £50,000 and £75,000
by his frauds. The sums reported to the police totalled about
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ALCHEMY IN MODERN TIMES

£37,000, but many of his victims preferred to suffer in silence
rather than incur publicity.

The judge pronounced Tausend to be “a brazen and un¬
scrupulous impostor whose guilt was attenuated only by the
credulity of his dupes and the mischievous influence of his
wife,” and sentenced him to three years and eight months’
imprisonment.

A few years ago an amusing account appeared in the news¬
papers of an Englishman who claimed to be able to convert
lead into mercury and mercury into silver and gold. This
pseudo-alchemist was a great believer in astrology, and declared
that he could produce gold successfully only when “the
heavens were balanced in equinox.” According to the reporter
who was present at a demonstration, the inventor wore a long
yellow dust-coat and donned a Turkish fez. A huge cauldron
was filled according to his directions and a fire lighted under it.
The cauldron was then sealed, and all waited for something to
happen. It did-— -a great explosion occurred, and the on¬
looker was nearly killed by a piece of the flying cauldron.
There was no gold, and as, according to the operator, the
experiment could be carried out only at the annual period, he
was safe for another year.

Thus it will be seen that the lure of alchemy can still be
as strong as it was centuries ago and that human nature has
remained unaltered throughout the ages.

239