Professor Lohmann just before the War succeeded in obtaining with
his new type of electric furnace temperatures of over 7,000 Fahrenheit. If Professor Miethe's experiment were repeated with the furnace instead of with vapour lamps, it is probable that " three kilogranunes of mercury could be decomposed in ten minutes into gold and helium or hydrogen." And then follows the inevitable, but none the less disturbing, comment by the Morning Post Correspondent :- "Steps are to be taken to put this to the test. Should the experi- ment succeed, the result Would be cataclysmic for the whole of human society, since the possibility of limitless quantities of gold at a negligible fraction of the present current value would destroy all the bases on which modern monetary systems test, sad. muse- quently on which our present conception and measures of material values depend."
That there is no exaggeration in these words, granted the premises, cannot be denied. But what reactions' must they be having in the City ! We see in vision the images of the great god Gold reeling upon their pedestals, while
" The shrines all tremble, and the lamps burn low." * *
Previous page
