Abstract
IN Die Naturivissenschaften of July 17 there appears a report of an address by Prof. Miethe on the production of gold from mercury, from which it seems that, in a mercury vapour lamp operated under suitable conditions, gold actually makes its appearance in amounts amenable to chemical tests. The necessary conditions are rather difficult to define, but with a suitable form of discharge, the gold yield is proportional to the current strength and the time. A definite potential is necessary before any appreciable quantity is observed. A mercury vapour lamp in vacua is ineffective, but the same discharge in air at atmospheric pressure gives measurable amounts of gold. Again, gold is found after a discharge between two mercury electrodes in paraffin wax; in this case the gold makes its appearance not in the liquid mercury but in the wax along the path of the discharge. In certain experiments even greater quantities of a metal which closely resembles silver are found.
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 116, 285–288 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116285b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116285b0