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  |  From           : KeelyNet BBS     |  DataLine        : (214) 324-3501  |
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  |  File Name      : EMMENS.ASC       |  Online Date     : 05/22/94        |
  |  Contributed by : Tim Niver        |  Dir Category    : ENERGY          |
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       ARGENTAURANA - A STUDY IN THE NON-NUCLEAR TRANSMUTATION OF METALS
                          BY STEPHEN         H.         EMMENS,         Ph.D,
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  This review is  done for upload and  commentary  to  the  Vangard  Sciences
  Research Group in Dallas, Texas and there associates by the efforts of Tim
  Niver. It is hoped that, those reviewing this material,  will  contact  the
  Rex Research Archive  and  obtain  a  copy  of  this  book  by  Dr. Emmens,
  undertake to perform the research outlined  therein,  and  in  turn  upload
  their findings to  the KeelyNet BBS so that we all may benefit  from  their
  knowledge.
            *******************************************************
  At about the  same  time that John Ernst Worrel Keely met his untimely end,
  Stephen H. Emmens,  a  contemporary   of   Keely's,   published   his  work
  ARGENTAURANA, in which he outlines his experimental work  in  transmuting a
  then-commonly known alloy,  "Mexican Silver" into a metallic material that,
  when examined by the United States Assayer's  Office  in New York City, was
  pronounced to be, chemically, physically and, for all practical intents and
  purposes, gold.

  Dr. Emmens apparently   owned  the  laboratory  at  which   these   various
  experiments took place,  listing  his address in the preface to his book as
  being Argentaurum Laboratory, 20, Central Avenue, New Brighton, Staten
  Island, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

  Throughout the rest  of this remarkable  work,  Dr.  Emmens  describes  his
  method for achieving  this  seemingly unachievable feat  of  transmuting  a
  silver alloy into  gold - a method which included hammering dollar coins or
  parts thereof, minted in Mexico, of the aforementioned alloy, in a crucible
  immersed in a freezing water bath, which  was  then  hammered  with a close
  fitting piston device attached to a crossarm which was  operated  via a cam
  shaft to produce  sixty  impacts per minute of the piston into the crucible
  and onto the alloy in question.

  After forty hours  or  thereabouts, during  which  time  the  crucible  was
  maintained in a frigid water bath with the addition of  ice  to  maintain a
  uniform temperature, with occasional lapses in the hammering process out of
  consideration for sleeping  neighbors  in  the  middle  of  the night, this
  constant hammering, under maintained  cold,  produced what the Assay Office
  in New York City was apparently happy to pronounce as gold.

  As if this were insufficient by itself, Dr. Emmens produced,  then  sold to
  the Assay Office,  a  total  of 670 ounces of gold produced by this method.
  There are several pictures in this book which, sadly, have not survived the
  attempts made at xeroxing the original text for distribution purposes.

  Whether or not copies of the book still exist is open to question, since it
  was apparently published in England  in  1899  by  a  publisher,  George De
  Boistel & Co. Printers, 30, Bridge Street, and 37, St. Mary Axe, London, E.
  C.

  The xeroxed copy has the mark of the British Royal Museum on several pages,
  which would lead  one  to believe that the original copy  of  this  xeroxed
  reproduction most likely  still  resides  there.    Contained  within  this
  volume as well is the apparently fairly lengthy correspondence Dr. Emmens

                                     Page 1




  had with Sir  William Crookes, of the "Radiometer" fame, from approximately
  the same time that Dr. Emmens was producing his experiments, the results of
  Sir William's experiments being essentially  a  replication of those by Dr.
  Emmens with equally good results.

  Several questions obviously arise here. First, if gold could be produced by
  this method, why  has it not been capitalized upon, thereby  making  gold's
  obviously superior qualities  for use in electronics and similar electrical
  applications far more accessible than it is at present?

  Secondly, if a hoax were being perpetrated,  how  does  it come that one of
  the most recognized  scientific  names of the time could  be  coerced  into
  perpetrating an obvious  fraud? Surely Sir William had a great deal more to
  gain from debunking an obvious hoax than he had to gain from pronouncing it
  a real and workable phenomenon.  And,  for  the  purposes  of this article,
  last, but by  no means last nor least, if this method of  transmutation  IS
  reproducible, if it  does  in  fact  work,  what  other metals or alloys of
  metals, as yet  unheard  of,  might  we  be  able  to  produce  by  similar
  experimentation?

  The volume leaves Dr. Emmens apparently continuing his studies.  No further
  publications by him  are  known  to  me at present, aside from this one. To
  date, I have no knowledge of the end  of  this  man's  life, nor under what
  circumstances that end  occurred, nor what became of his  papers  following
  his death.

  It has been  written  elsewhere that, prior to his death, John Ernst Worrel
  Keely, denounced as a fraud, charlatan,  pirate and various other nefarious
  terms, none of which, as we now know, applied to him in  any  sense, burned
  his notebooks and  personal  papers,  to  the  detriment of us all. What he
  learned, at great expense to himself  in  time,  energy,  and  most of all,
  credibility and heartache, is lost, perhaps forever, perhaps not.

  At the time of this writing I am unable to carry out these studies into the
  claims made by Dr. Emmens myself, much as I might like to do so.  Who knows
  what new metals, what new compounds, what new elements perhaps might be had
  from verification of and continuation of these experiments?   And  did  the
  various notebooks of  Dr.  Emmens  suffer the same fate, being destroyed at
  his death, leaving us with only this  one  volume  of work as a tantalizing
  hint at what might be accomplished had those books been saved?   Or do they
  perhaps sit in  an  attic  or  used  book  shop  somewhere,  waiting  to be
  rediscovered and their knowledge put  back  to  use  nearly a hundred years
  later?

  Someone must undertake to do this work of continuing this research. Someone
  must undertake to verify, and then explain, why these results, IF viable,
  ARE viable. And that someone must be willing to share their  findings  with
  the rest of  us, not to deny them any material gain from their work, but to
  further the knowledge base which has been  won with such hard work to date.
  Rather than hiding it, it must be made known.  Rather than  being burned in
  despair, it must be preserved, so that those who come after us may partake
  of what we  learned,  and  expand upon it.  For those parties interested in
  obtaining a copy of this document, it  may  be  had  from  the Rex Research
  Archive, P.O. Box  19250,  Jean, Nevada 89019 USA. The document  number  is
  E16-EMM. I apologize to say I do not know the current cost.  -- Tim Niver
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             Excellent paper TIM!...thanks for sharing it with us!
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