The Man Who Could Make Gold

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 266, 1 December 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Man Who Could Make Gold

IROFESSOR J. B. S. HALDANE, one of the greatest living biologists, relates the following story, which actually happened to him in 1930. The events described are so incredible that coming from anv other source we might lightly dismiss them as fiction. Professor Haldane is outstanding not only as one of the world’s best brains, but as a man of high principles and courage. Fie had an enviable record in the last war, and as readers may remember went to Spain in 1936 to put his knowledge at the disposal of the Spanish Government (Loyalists). Recently he risked his life to test the submarine escape gear used on the ill-fated “ Thetis ” and the air raid shel- “ In June, 1930,” said Professor Haldane, “ I had delivered a series of six lectures at the Sorbonne (University of Paris). After my last lecture I was sitting at a table at the Cafe bouiflet, in the Rue des Ecoles, with my eminently respectable colleague, Hanroit, and his wife, drinking light beer. We had had a few drinks when a hungry looking tramp sidled up to me, and in a voice which was pot made more intelligible by the absence of any truth, said, ror the love of Science read this, and if you want more follow . me. He slunk away to hide behind a dark passage while I held the paper he had given me to the light. It was the first part of the wave equation for carbon, oi rather of the set of 42 differential equations which would enable me, or any advanced chemical scholar, to/ predict the j behaviour ofUtlie element, cai ‘•way it was expressed was new, and certainly unpublished. Now, a beggar might conceivably have copied some of Kultchagin s equations to act as a bait for me, but he could not possibly have transposed them like that. (Imagine a tramp handing you a copy of Waiata Maori faultlessly translated into Icelandic

A TRUE STORY STRANGER THAN FICTION.

and then written out in Egyptian hieroglyphics, and you will appreciate the labour and special knowledge involved in such a task). This was something really queer, and as a student of queer things in chemistry, I decided to follow him. “ The man was evidently terrified, as if an attempt might be made on his life at any minute. He whispered the name of a tavern at the Porte de la Villette, and named the time, midnight. After writing a note of my intentions to a colleague, and asking him to notify the police if I failed to return by noon the next day, I set out for the rendezvous. Punctually at twelve my mysterious companion arrived and sat down in the seat opposite me. I ordered him a bottle of brandy. For the next hour he spoke in rapid French, at times using a word of English or German to make his point. He was obviously suffering from extreme terror. His face showed the scars of war wounds, which had removed part of his jaw. This, is what he said: — “ You have heard what happened to Eugene Galois?” “ x know he was convicted of murder and imprisoned on Devil’s Island., But I cun t believe he murdered his colleague for money. He was one of the leading mathematicians in the world—a crime passionel, perhaps. But you cannot murder for gain unless your mind is obsessed by money, and . his mind was too full of calculations to leave room for that. . I hear they have tried to get his. case retried. If I can do anything m reason to help,” said Professoi Haldane, “ I will.” of parrot disease. He was a martyr. It is because he is dead that I am talking to you.” “ Galois was on to the biggest thing since the invention of the steam engine. He was murdered because he knew too much. If you listen to me, you may make world history. You

may become tlie richest man on the planet. But you are also likely to be murdered. Indeed, if you have been seen with me you probably will be. But if you’re afraid you’d better clear out at once. ... T “ j don’t mind admitting 1 was . nfraid,” commented Professor Haldane. “ Since 1918 my adventures had been intellectual and emotional cyily. Mumbling that I would be * damnable mouldy a hundred years hence, the professor told his companion to go on.” . „ “ Galois was a genius, continued the stranger. “You know that, but you don t, perhaps, realise how wide his interests were. He felt very deeply that the evils of the present day were due to the abuse of science by unscientific men. lie had a special down on financiers. Pie realised that the theory of wave mechanics meant a new era in Chemistry. When he heard that Bonhofer and Eucken had proved that hydrogen was a mixture, he said it' was only the beginning.

“ Having some private means he retired to the country and worked out the wave equations for the gold atom. He bought a remote cottage and papered the walls white. Using a step ladder he covered the walls with figures. After 18 months he condensed his results into a small note book. After another six months’ work he discovered that gold had an enormous and unsuspected affinity for a group of organic compounds. Then lie got hold of the organic chemist, Requier, who had once worked with him before. Requier made one of the compounds, which proved that their scheme would

work. “ I was a work’s chemist at Nanterre and a friend of Requier’s, when he and Galois asked me to join them. We went down to the Mediterranean coast at a little village called Ste Leocadie, where we started a salt pan. I don’t know if the salt was particularly good, but we managed to sell it. Of course, salt was not our object. You know there is gold in sea water — about one part in 20 million. When you evaporate the water in a salt pan most of the salt crystalises out, leaving a sticky solution full of Epsom salts and what not. The gold is there too, and it was easy to concentrate it 100 times in the sunshine of Southern France. The brine left lias about one part in 200,000 of gold. That’s a lot. Gravel with only one part in a million is worked profitably. We added Requier’s compound to this. I don’t know the formula, but it

was a bright blue and contained saponine. . “After about two hours the gold has combined with the blue, which has turned into red. Frqm this it is a simple matter to dissolve the gold. You can then use the blue stuff again. “ We started in January, 1928,. but it was not until May- that we got going properly. By September we had made about £30,000. Most of that went in paying off our debts, but we had about £IO,OOO left. “ Before the show started we had decided what we were going to do with the money. Of course we were idealists —you’ve got to be an idealist to go in for science in France to-day, where a distinguished professor gets £3OO a year. Our idea was to built up a fund of £10,000,000 to endow the Universities of branee, Belgium and Italy, where scientific workers arc worst paid. Then we would help the rest of the world! We reckoned to make some hundreds of million pounds. Galois believed that the world was not producing enough gold to keep pace with its material wealth. The restriction of credit due to the shortage of gold causes unemployment and misery. Galois’ idea was to produce gold just fast enough to keep prices steady. After paying France’s war debts wc were going to give the secret to the League of Nations. “Well, everything went swimmingly until the end of August, 1929. Then I got a typewritten document from Paris. There was no address, but it was headed, Association Internationale pouila Defense des Interets Rentiers (International Society for the protection of Bankers). It ran something like this : “ Dear Sir,—As it is possible that in future the operations on which you are engaged will incommode us, I have the honour to offer you ah income of 200,000 francs a year (£1,500) should you abandon them. Your colleagues have also been approached. In the event of you resigning your occupation you will receive your first quarter’s salary within one week, the notes being despatched to your mother’s house. In earnest of our good intentions we enclose 10,000 francs. “ Should the offer not be accepted within one week from to-day we shall be compelled to take steps to eliminate the concern in which you are a partner.” I was impressed by the 10,000 francs, but more by the fact that three days later the letter crumbled to powder. We held a council of war and decided to ignore the offer. Galois thought the A.1.D.1.R. might be a representative financial group, while Requier and I suspected that they stood for a gold mining group. We never learned how they had discovered our secret, for we used to sell our gold by a most round about

way. Next week I was called to the telephone. A voice said, “ A.1.D.1.R. speaking. Our offer is and remains open. We are even prepared to raise, if you state your terms in the advertisement columns of the ‘ Petit Nimois.’ If you do not accept you will all he killed. • This is our last communication.” We decided to ignore this warning too, but took measures to defend ourselves. We all carried pistols and had a supply of tear-gas bombs handy. One day, some weeks later, I had gone into the village for some medicine. While I was away the blow fell. Galois was arrested for murdering Requier. Two Swiss tourists swore they had seen him do it. The bullets fitted a pistol nearby, which a Marseilles gunsmith swore he had sold to Galois. Other witnesses appeared miraculously and swore a damning case against him. The climax was an alleged Chilian millionaire called Fernandez sued Galois for six million francs, which he swore he had lent us for a scheme of extracting gold from sea water. He had a whole library of forged documents and could produce sworn witnesses like a magician— _ “ At this point the conversation was interrupted by a bomb, which landed in my coffee cup. Up to this point,” added Haldane, “ I had not been able to decide whether my companion was a clever liar. I expected the request for a loan of 100 francs, which would have been a

poor reward-'idr such! prowess. But the bomb convinced me of his veracity. It also took me back 13 years, fo when' I ran a bomb school. .Qne of my tricks had been to " teach'- our men to catch grenades before they exploded and toss them back. This bomb was a * stick bomb ’ with a long wooden handle, just like the German type. Through the doorway I saw a cab waiting for the man who had- thrown it. Catching the bomb by the handle I ran

to the door and threw it into the cab, flinging myself, to the floor as I did so. The bombthrower fired twice before his missile exploded. One bullet* went through my raincoat, and the other, 1 'learned later, hit the lady behind the counter. The bomb burst as I hit the ground. The man with the revolver was just getting in as it did so. The driver could not escape, but my assailant appeared to be only wounded as he* •lay flat on the sidewalk. The car had caught on fire and was blazing merrily. I ran for my life. As I passed the man I kicked his head with all my might and thought I heard a bone crack.

“Next morning there was no mention of the episode, but the evening papers made a splash of it. The proprietress had been wounded, the driver was dead, and my assailant had a broken jaw and minor wounds. The waiter had seen me throwing the bomb. No one had seen it come in. “ I had been followed as I left the cafe, and for nearly a month, though I dodged trains and hid on lorries my assassins dogged me. At last I decided my only chance of safety was to publish the whole story in a book which was being printed at the time (‘The Inequality of Man.’). “ All this happened in 1930. “ A good team of mathematicians could make the requisite calculations in four years or so,” said Professor Haldane. “I hope so, because I would like to sec the men who organised the murder of Galois and his friends picking crusts out of the gutter. Perhaps the Communists will take up the idea. There are some very good mathematical physicists in Russia. If they get the solution first they will be able to flood the world with gold—.”