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VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY.
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AFTER the very minute
and elaborate paper by Arago, to say nothing
of
the summary in "Silliman's Journal," with the detailed statement just
published
by Lieutenant Maury, it will not be supposed, of course, that in
offering
a few hurried remarks in reference to Von Kempelen's discovery, I have
any design to look at the subject in a scientific point of
view. My
object
is simply, in the first place, to say a few words of Von Kempelen
himself
(with whom, some years ago, I had the honor of a slight personal
acquaintance,)
since every thing which concerns him must necessarily, at this moment,
be of interest; and, in the second place, to look in a general way, and
speculatively, at the results of the discovery.
It may be as well, however, to premise the cursory
observations
which
I have to offer, by denying, very decidedly, what seems to be a general
impression (gleaned, as usual in a case of this kind, from the
newspapers,)
viz.: that this discovery, astounding as it unquestionably is, is unanticipated.
By reference to the "Diary of Sir Humphrey Davy,"
(Cottle and Munroe,
London, pp. 150,) it will be seen at pp. 53 and 82, that this
illustrious
chemist had not only conceived the idea now in question, but had
actually
made no inconsiderable progress, experimentally, in the
very identical
analysis now so triumphantly brought to an issue by Von Kempelen,
who
although
he makes not the slightest allusion to it, is, without doubt (I
say it
unhesitatingly, and can prove it, if required,) indebted to the "Diary"
for at least the first hint of his own undertaking. Although a [page
103:]
little technical, I cannot refrain from appending two passages from the
"Diary," with one of Sir Humphrey's equations. [As we have not the
algebraic signs necessary, and as the "Diary" is to be found at the
Athenæum Library, we omit here a small portion of Mr. Poe's
manuscript. — ED.]
The paragraph from the "Courier and Enquirer," which
is now going
the
rounds of the press, and which purports to claim the invention for a
Mr.
Kissam, of Brunswick, Maine, appears to me, I confess, a little
apocryphal,
for several reasons; although there is nothing either impossible or
very
improbable in the statement made. I need not go into details. My
opinion
of the paragraph is founded principally upon its manner. It
does not look
true. Persons who are narrating facts, are seldom so particular
as Mr.
Kissam seems to be, about day and date and precise location. Besides,
if
Mr. Kissam actually did come upon the discovery he says he did,
at the
period designated — nearly eight years ago — how happens it that he
took
no steps, on the instant, to reap the immense benefits which
the merest
bumpkin must have known would have resulted to him individually, if not
to the world at large, from the discovery? It seems to me quite
incredible
that any man of common understanding, could have discovered what Mr.
Kissam
says he did, and yet have subsequently acted so like a baby — so like
an owl — as Mr. Kissam admits that he did. By-the-way, who is
Mr.
Kissam?
and is not the whole paragraph in the "Courier and Enquirer" a
fabrication
got up to "make a talk?" It must be confessed that it has an amazingly
moon-hoaxy-air. Very little dependence is to be placed upon it, in my
humble
opinion; and if I were not well aware, from experience, how very easily
men of science are mystified, on points out of their usual
range of
inquiry,
I should be profoundly astonished at finding so eminent a chemist as
Professor
Draper, discussing Mr. Kissam's (or is it Mr. Quizzem's?) pretensions
to
the discovery, in so serious a tone.
But to return to the "Diary" of Sir Humphrey Davy.
This pamphlet was
not designed for the public eye, even upon the decease of the writer,
as
any person at all conversant with authorship may satisfy himself at
once
by the slightest inspection of the style. At page 13, for example, near
the middle, we read, in [page 104:] reference to his researches
about the protoxide
of azote: "In less than half a minute the respiration being continued,
diminished gradually and were succeeded by analogous to gentle
pressure
on all the muscles." That the respiration was not "diminished,"
is not
only clear by the subsequent context, but by the use of the plural,
"were."
The sentence, no doubt, was thus intended: "In less than half a minute,
the respiration [being continued, these feelings] diminished gradually,
and were succeeded by [a sensation] analogous to gentle pressure on all
the muscles." A hundred similar instances go to show that the MS. so
inconsiderately
published, was merely a rough note-book, meant only for the
writer's
own
eye; but an inspection of the pamphlet will convince almost any
thinking
person of the truth of my suggestion. The fact is, Sir Humphrey Davy
was
about the last man in the world to commit himself on scientific
topics.
Not only had he a more than ordinary dislike to quackery, but he was
morbidly
afraid of appearing empirical; so that, however fully he might
have
been
convinced that he was on the right track in the matter now in question,
he would never have spoken out, until he had every thing ready
for the
most practical demonstration. I verily believe that his last moments
would
have been rendered wretched, could he have suspected that his wishes in
regard to burning this "Diary" (full of crude speculations) would have
been unattended to; as, it seems, they were. I say "his wishes," for
that
he meant to include this note-book among the miscellaneous papers
directed "to be burnt," I think there can be no manner of doubt.
Whether it
escaped
the flames by good fortune or by bad, yet remains to be seen. That the
passages quoted above, with the other similar ones referred to, gave
Von
Kempelen the hint, I do not in the slightest degree question;
but I
repeat,
it yet remains to be seen whether this momentous discovery itself
(momentous
under any circumstances,) will be of service or disservice to mankind
at
large. That Von Kempelen and his immediate friends will reap a rich
harvest,
it would be folly to doubt for a moment. They will scarcely be so weak
as not to "realize," in time, by large purchases of houses and
land,
with
other property of intrinsic value.
In the brief account of Von Kempelen which appeared
in the "Home
Journal,"
and has since been extensively copied, several [page 105:]
misapprehensions of the
German original seem to have been made by the translator, who professes
to have taken the passage from a late number of the Presburg
"Schnellpost." "Viele" has evidently been misconceived (as it
often
is,) and what the
translator renders by "sorrows," is probably "lieden," which, in
its
true
version, "sufferings," would give a totally different complexion to the
whole account; but, of course, much of this is merely guess, on my
part.
Von Kempelen, however, is by no means "a
misanthrope," in
appearance,
at least, whatever he may be in fact. My acquaintance with him was
casual
altogether; and I am scarcely warranted in saying that I know him at
all;
but to have seen and conversed with a man of so prodigious a
notoriety
as he has attained, or will attain in a few days, is not a
small
matter,
as times go.
"The Literary World" speaks of him, confidently, as
a native of
Presburg
(misled, perhaps, by the account in the "Home Journal,") but I am
pleased
in being able to state positively, since I have it from his own
lips,
that
he was born in Utica, in the State of New York, although both his
parents,
I believe, are of Presburg descent. The family is connected, in some
way,
with Mäelzel, of Automaton-chess-player memory. [If we are not
mistaken, the name of the inventor of the chess-player was
either Kempelen, Von Kempelen, or something like it. — ED.]
In person, he is short
and stout, with large, fat, blue eyes, sandy hair and whiskers,
a wide
but pleasing mouth, fine teeth, and I think a Roman nose. There is some
defect in one of his feet. His address is frank, and his whole manner
noticeable
for bonhommie. Altogether, he looks, speaks and acts as little
like "a
misanthrope" as any man I ever saw. We were fellow-sojouners for a
week,
about six years ago, at Earl's Hotel, in Providence, Rhode Island; and
I presume that I conversed with him, at various times, for some three
or
four hours altogether. His principal topics were those of the day; and
nothing that fell from him led me to suspect his scientific
attainments.
He left the hotel before me, intending to go to New York, and thence to
Bremen; it was in the latter city that his great discovery was first
made
public; or, rather, it was there that he was first suspected of having
made it. This is about all that I personally know of the now immortal
Von [page 106:] Kempelen; but I have thought that even
these few details would have
interest
for the public.
There can be little question that most of the
marvellous rumors
afloat
about this affair, are pure inventions, entitled to about as much
credit
as the story of Aladdin's lamp; and yet, in a case of this kind, as in
the case of the discoveries in California, it is clear that the truth may
be stranger than fiction. The following anecdote, at least, is so
well
authenticated, that we may receive it implicitly.
Von Kempelen had never been even tolerably well off
during his
residence
at Bremen; and often, it was well known, he had been put to extreme
shifts
in order to raise trifling sums. When the great excitement occurred
about
the forgery on the house of Gutsmuth & Co., suspicion was directed
towards Von Kempelen, on account of his having purchased a considerable
property in Gasperitch Lane, and his refusing, when questioned, to
explain
how he became possessed of the purchase money. He was at length
arrested,
but nothing decisive appearing against him, was in the end set at
liberty.
The police, however, kept a strict watch upon his movements, and thus
discovered
that he left home frequently, taking always the same road, and
invariably
giving his watchers the slip in the neighborhood of that labyrinth of
narrow
and crooked passages known by the flash-name of the "Dondergat."
Finally,
by dint of great perseverance, they traced him to a garret in an old
house
of seven stories, in an alley called Flätzplatz; and, coming upon
him
suddenly, found him, as they imagined, in the midst of his
counterfeiting
operations. His agitation is represented as so excessive that the
officers
had not the slightest doubt of his guilt. After hand-cuffing him, they
searched his room, or rather rooms; for it appears he occupied all the mausarde
[[mansarde]].
Opening into the garret where they caught him, was a
closet, ten
feet
by eight, fitted up with some chemical apparatus, of which the object
has
not yet been ascertained. In one corner of the closet was a very small
furnace, with a glowing fire in it, and on the fire a kind of duplicate
crucible — two crucibles connected by a tube. One of these crucibles
was
nearly full of lead in a state of fusion, but not reaching up
to the
aperture
of the tube, which was close to the brim. The other crucible had some
liquid
in it, [page 107:] which, as the officers entered, seemed to be
furiously
dissipating
in vapor. They relate that, on finding himself taken, Von Kempelen
seized
the
crucibles with both hands (which were encased in gloves that afterwards
turned out to be asbestic), and threw the contents on the tiled floor.
It was now that they hand-cuffed him; and, before proceeding to ransack
the premises, they searched his person, but nothing unusual was found
about
him, excepting a paper parcel, in his coat pocket, containing what was
afterwards ascertained to be a mixture of antimony and some unknown
substance,
in nearly, but not quite, equal proportions. All attempts at analyzing
the unknown substance have, so far, failed, but that it will ultimately
be analyzed, is not to be doubted.
Passing out of the closet with their prisoner, the
officers went
through
a sort of ante-chamber, in which nothing material was found, to the
chemist's
sleeping-room. They here rummaged some drawers and boxes, but
discovered
only a few papers, of no importance, and some good coin, silver and
gold.
At length, looking under the bed, they saw a large, common hair
trunk,
without hinges, hasp, or lock, and with the top lying carelessly across
the bottom portion. Upon attempting to draw this trunk out from under
the
bed, they found that, with their united strength (there were three of
them,
all powerful men), they "could not stir it one inch." Much astonished
at
this, one of them crawled under the bed, and looking into the trunk,
said:
"No wonder we couldn"t move it — why, it's full to
the brim of old
bits
of brass!"
Putting his feet, now, against the wall so as to get
a good
purchase,
and pushing with all his force, while his companions pulled with all
theirs,
the trunk, with much difficulty, was slid out from under the bed, and
its
contents examined. The supposed brass with which it was filled was all
in small, smooth pieces, varying from the size of a pea to that of a
dollar;
but the pieces were irregular in shape, although more or less
flat — looking,
upon the whole, "very much as lead looks when thrown upon the ground in
a molten state, and there suffered to grow cool." Now, not one of these
officers for a moment suspected this metal to be anything but
brass.
The
idea of its being gold never entered their brains, of course;
how could
such a wild fancy have entered it? [page 108:] And their
astonishment may be well
conceived,
when the next day it became known, all over Bremen, that the "lot of
brass"
which they had carted so contemptuously to the police office, without
putting
themselves to the trouble of pocketing the smallest scrap, was not only
gold — real gold — but gold far finer than any employed in
coinage — gold,
in fact, absolutely pure, virgin, without the slightest appreciable
alloy!
I need not go over the details of Von Kempelen's
confession (as far
as it went) and release, for these are familiar to the public. That he
has actually realized, in spirit and in effect, if not to the letter,
the
old chimera of the philosopher's stone, no sane person is at liberty
to
doubt. The opinions of Arago are, of course, entitled to the greatest
consideration;
but he is by no means infallible; and what he says of bismuth,
in his
report
to the academy, must be taken cum grano salis. The simple truth
is,
that
up to this period all analysis has failed; and until Von
Kempelen
chooses
to let us have the key to his own published enigma, it is more than
probable
that the matter will remain, for years, in statu quo. All that
as yet
can
fairly be said to be known, is, that "pure gold can be made at will,
and
very readily from lead, in connection with certain other substances, in
kind and in proportions, unknown."
Speculation, of course, is busy as to the immediate
and ultimate
results
of this discovery — a discovery which few thinking persons will
hesitate
in referring to an increased interest in the matter of gold generally,
by the late developments in California; and this reflection brings us
inevitably
to another — the exceeding inopportuneness of Von Kempelen's
analysis.
If many were prevented from adventuring to California, by the mere
apprehension
that gold would so materially diminish in value, on account of its
plentifulness
in the mines there, as to render the speculation of going so far in
search
of it a doubtful one — what impression will be wrought now,
upon the
minds
of those about to emigrate, and especially upon the minds of those
actually
in the mineral region, by the announcement of this astounding discovery
of Von Kempelen? a discovery which declares, in so many words, that
beyond
its intrinsic worth for manufacturing purposes, (whatever that worth
may
be), gold now is, or at least soon will be (for it cannot be supposed
that
Von Kempelen can long retain his secret) of no [page 109:]
greater value than
lead,
and of far inferior value to silver. It is indeed, exceedingly
difficult
to speculate prospectively upon the consequences of the discovery, but
one thing may be positively maintained — that the announcement of the
discovery six months ago, would have had material influence in regard
to
the settlement of California.
In Europe, as yet, the most noticeable results have
been a rise of
two
hundred per cent. in the price of lead, and nearly twenty-five per
cent.
in that of silver. |
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