Gaschler’s research presents interesting analogies to some ancient gold dissipation practices. But why should one dissipate metallic gold?
And what does it mean to dissipate? Is it something to do with alchemical Dissolution and our Universal Dissolvent/Secret Fire? Some twenty years ago, someone tried to point me to Alois Gaschler’s works, but I did not pay too much attention to his heavy metal filaments undergoing high-voltage electricity.
Gaschler’s technical field, nuclear energy, prevented me from going further. I have always refused to perceive any parallel between Alchemy and nuke, despite many contemporary alchemists’ interest in anything relating to the nucleus of an atom. Knowing quite nothing about what possibly happens inside their vessels, Alchemists have often tried to use current scientific theories to claim systematic and methodical credit to their ancient and impenetrable, even to them, art. Some ten years ago, I dropped my eyes on “The Goldmakers “ by K. K. Doberer, and there Alois Gaschler was called into play again. So I was compelled to search for a reason. Finally, Robert Nelson’s site got me to know that Gaschler applied for two patents on his discoveries on metals filaments undergone to high voltage electricity. And my attention was caught by the apparatus description rather than the technical field.
The British application patent no.239,509, “Process & Apparatus for Transforming Elementary Atoms” 1925 (1), includes an exciting, for our alchemical purposes, abstract: “ This invention relates to a process of and means for transforming elementary atoms, particularly of uranium and thorium to hasten their spontaneous disintegration and to increase their radioactivity, and the invention consists in subjecting small quantities of the metal in a vaporizing chamber to a very high pressure and temperature and in subjecting the metal vapor to the electrostatic or electrolytic effect of strong, preferably direct currents”. We can jump directly to the “ elementary atoms spontaneous disintegration” through “subjecting the metal vapor to the electrostatic or electrolytic effect “.
In the US application background art, “Method of Artificially Producing Radioactive Substances” no.1,644,370 Oct. 3, 1927, Gaschler states: “The efficiency of the transformation is all the greater, the higher the potential of the current. The efficiency is also higher the more the dissociated vapor comes in contact with the pole faces. In operating this process, it is advisable, therefore, to employ a heating current of low voltage and high intensity and a current of small intensity and high voltage.”
Alois Gaschler’s invention objects are: “The object of this invention is to transform materials of relatively low radioactivity into relatively high radioactivity and increase the radioactivity of such materials.
Another object of my invention is to increase the radioactivity of uranium and thorium. Another object of my invention is to accelerate to a high degree the very slow spontaneous transformation of uranium and thorium”.
Patents are not scientific publications and do not provide great space for the systematic investigation involved in a final apparatus or method. Since patents are only the same devices and methods, presentations, and descriptions to write claims on, further, in the 1920s, patent applications were very bare bones. Thus do not expect too much from Gaschler applications apart from a simple description and a single design produced below.
“Referring to this drawing, a is an earthenware jacket or sheathing, in which there is provided a cavity or hollow space b for the reception of the metal to be transformed, which metal passes through the cavity b in the form of a filament c or, if mercury is involved, fills the passage b to form a continuous conductor from the one metal plate d to the other metal plate e. These metal plates, d, and e, are fitted with the necessary current terminals.
The above is to be taken as merely illustrative of my invention and the best mode of operating the same and not as limiting the invention which is defined in the appended claims”.
As alchemists, our attention should not be caught by radioactivity objects. Still, by Gaschler’s conclusions, that’s to say that an electrical charge can get radium to be finely divided, and when radium has been finely divided, it releases radon. The Alchemical Concept here is about a metal finely divided or quite disintegrated by electricity, as previously stated in the British application abstract.
It is commonly known that a powerful charge of electricity can dissipate metallic gold in the form of leaf/foil or filament. An alchemical dissolution is about finely dividing a leaf, thin wire or powder of a metal, preferably gold.
And finally is commonly known that repeated volatilizations, or/and changes of state, can heavily affect atoms’ electronic clouds. Chemical interactions are electrical interactions. And I’m not sure we need 100 kilowatt seconds of electrical energy, as Gaschler states. As a matter of fact, in Alchemy, we do not need to produce 1 gram of uranium. We will much more content ourselves with metallic gold reduced in Mercurius/Secret Fire, that’s to say, metal or any other existing thing finely divided. Then Philosophers Gold/Mercurius shall know its way.
Strange apparatuses involving electricity have been defined to be mere cultic objects by archaeologists.
- Both applications can be found at Robert Nelson’s site rexresearch.com/articles/gaschler.htm ;