“GOLD FROM SALT”

Shannon News, 29 October 1926, Page 4

“GOLD FROM SALT”

LITTLE SPECKS OF BRASS

AMUSING,} GERMAN HOAX. A DRAW FOR BIG MONEY. Munich, the pleasant capital of Bavaria, is just recovering from the excitement of a "gold rush" of its own. It was announced that, an inventor had discovered a wonderful method of producing gold; and quite a number y of peoplo flocked to that city, glad that they had not to brav\s the hardships of travel to some distant inhospitable land. ' There were no claims to be pegged out; it was merely a question of buying, or buying shares in, a mysterious and wonderful machine which produced the precious metal out of —salt! The gold-seekers —• standing at a .respectable distance—wero permitted to see*the miracle performed before'their very ei r os." Why, it meant that every household salt-cellar would bo a goldmine. ' " ' ■ The inventor was Herr Hans Unruh. At the demonstration he simply took ■ an ordinary salt-cellar from his din-ing-room cruet, sprinkled some salt on a steel plate, covered the plate with a great lampshade and turned powerful electric rays on the humble material. Then, lo and behold, says a correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle," when the lamp shade was lifted little particles of gold glittered in the midst of the silvery salt! An Influx Of Money. Thereupon, numerous people were ready to put their money into the hands of the inventor. A Prussian merchant handed over 53,000 marks ' (at present worth £2600) for a share in the > gold-producing concern which was to be set up. A more humble individual scraped up 1700 marks together. A third had 10,000 marks ready, and a fourth 11,000 marks. Finally, an architect paid in 2000 marks. _ This sum of 77,700 marks was entrusted to Herr Unruh in order that ; ho might construct a much larger machine, which would produce gold on a commercial basis. The subscribers' funds were to rank as specially privileged founder shares. , Then Herr Unruh went a little further. He gathered together a number of wealthy and influential personages and entertained them lavishly, either at his big flat in Berlin, or in his permanently - engaged suite of rooms at tho first hotel in Munich. They agreed to form a syndicate with a capital of 1,000,000 marks, half of which was to go into the concern as soon as the large machine was ready. Herr Unruh said the machino would cost 27,000 marks to construct, and the syndicate immediately handed that sum over to him. A Very Brazen Trick. For a while no more was heard d£ the matter, until Herr Hans Unruh, who lived extravagantly, had run through the 10,000 marks which had : been entrusted to him. Ho wanted " more money, and, when that was not j forthcoming, he frankly and callously admitted that the whole thing was a fraud. He had simply put' little ,

specks of brass in his salt-cellar beI fore performing his trick. He did inot attempt to escape; he boldly faced the music in court and was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison With five years loss of all civil rights. The case shovv* how easy it is still in Germany for tfcb man with a 'get-rich-quick' swindle to reap a considerable harvest from the wealthy as well as from the simple. It is all tho more curious in that tho namd "Unruh" did not arouse a single suspicion in the minds of the persons with whom Hans Unruh had to do; for he is the brother of Herr Willi Unruh, whose gigantic swindle was the talk of Germany and ■ other countries hardly six years ago! Herr Willi Unruh announced that he had solved the mystery of perpetual motion in such a way that he could, by means of a wonderful apparatus, produce electricity for next to nothing. He interested hosts of experts in his "U-Generator," ho called the machine. Professors and scientists examined it and saw it work powerful electric lights were kept blazing in a, glass case with no apparent connection with outside. Herr Willi In Prison. For a while - the , experts thought that, .scientifically, Germany' had "done it again." \ Roma '■flnanciers were on the spot from half-a-dozen countries, waiting for Herr Willi to' name his price., Tho representatives of two powerful British syndicates, with hundreds of thousands of pounds behind them, were among the competitors. Then one day, when a visitor called to see him, his servant whispered that Herr Willi was in gaol. He had done , something irregular with cheques and loans, and the sorry truth about his "U-Generator" came out as a result.