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Von Kempelen and His Discovery by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, Vaughan Kemplein and his Discovery
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  Speaker 1: Edgar Allan Poe, after the very minute and elaborate paper
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  Speaker 1: by Arago, to say nothing of the summary in Sillyman's Journal,
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  Speaker 1: with the detailed statement just published by Lieutenant Morey. It
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  Speaker 1: will not be supposed, of course, that in offering a
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  Speaker 1: few hurried remarks in reference to Vaughan Kemplan's discovery, I
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  Speaker 1: have any design to look at the subject in a
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  Speaker 1: scientific point of view. My object is simply in the
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  Speaker 1: first place, to say a few words of Vaughan Kemplan himself,
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  Speaker 1: with whom some years ago I had the honor of
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  Speaker 1: a slight personal acquaintance, since every thing which concerns him
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  Speaker 1: must necessarily, at this moment be of interest, And in
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  Speaker 1: the second place, to look in a general way and
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  Speaker 1: speculatively at the results of the discovery. It may be
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  Speaker 1: as well, however, to premise the cursory observations which I
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  Speaker 1: have to offer, by denying very dis decidedly what seems
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  Speaker 1: to be a general impression gleaned, as usual in a
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  Speaker 1: case of this kind, from the newspapers viz. That this discovery,
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  Speaker 1: astounding as it unquestionably is, is unanticipated. By reference to
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  Speaker 1: the Diary of Sir Humphry Davy Cottle and Monroe, London,
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  Speaker 1: pages one hundred fifty, it will be seen at pages
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  Speaker 1: fifty three and eighty two that this illustrious chemist had
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  Speaker 1: not only conceived the idea now in question, but had
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  Speaker 1: actually made no inconsiderable progress experimentally in the very identical
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  Speaker 1: analysis now so triumphantly brought to an issue by von Kemplin, who,
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  Speaker 1: although he makes not the slightest allusion to it, is
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  Speaker 1: without doubt I say it unhesitatingly, and can prove it
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  Speaker 1: if required. Indebted to the Diary for at least the
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  Speaker 1: first hint of his own undertaking, the paragraph from the
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  Speaker 1: Courier and Inquirer, which is now going the rounds of
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  Speaker 1: the press, and which purports to claim the invention for
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  Speaker 1: a mister Kissom of Brunswick, Maine, appears to me I
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  Speaker 1: confess a little apocryphal for several reasons. Although there is
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  Speaker 1: nothing either impossible or very improbable in the statement made,
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  Speaker 1: I need not go into details. My opinion of the
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  Speaker 1: paragraph is found it principally upon its manner. It does
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  Speaker 1: not look true. Persons who are narrating facts are seldom
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  Speaker 1: so particular as mister Kissom seems to be about day
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  Speaker 1: and date in precise location. Besides, if mister Kissom actually
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  Speaker 1: did come upon the discovery he says he did at
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  Speaker 1: the period designated nearly eight years ago, how happens it
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  Speaker 1: that he took no steps on the instant to reap
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  Speaker 1: the immense benefits which the merest Bunkin must have known
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  Speaker 1: would have resulted to him individually, if not to the
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  Speaker 1: world at large from the discovery. It seems to me
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  Speaker 1: quite incredible that any man of common understanding could have
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  Speaker 1: discovered what mister Kissom says he did, and yet have
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  Speaker 1: subsequently acted so like a baby, so like an owl,
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  Speaker 1: as mister Kissom admits that he did. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: who is mister Kissom? And is not the whole paragraph
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  Speaker 1: in the Courier and Inquirer a fabrication got up to
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  Speaker 1: make a talk. It must be confessed that it has
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  Speaker 1: an amazingly moon hoaxier. Very little dependence is to be
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  Speaker 1: placed upon it, in my humble opinion, And if I
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  Speaker 1: were not well aware from experience, how very easily men
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  Speaker 1: of science are mystified on points out of their usual
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  Speaker 1: range of inquiry. I should be profoundly astonished at finding
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  Speaker 1: so eminent a chemist as Professor Draper discussing mister Kissom's,
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  Speaker 1: or is it mister Quism's pretensions to the discovery in
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  Speaker 1: so serious a tone. But to return to the diary
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  Speaker 1: of Sir Humphry Davy, this pamphlet was not designed for
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  Speaker 1: the public eye, even upon the decease of the writer,
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  Speaker 1: as any person at all conversant with authorship may satisfy
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  Speaker 1: himself at once by the slightest inspection of the style.
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  Speaker 1: At page thirteen, for example, near the middle, we read,
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  Speaker 1: in reference to his researches about the protoxide of azote.
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  Speaker 1: In less than half a minute, the respiration being continued
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  Speaker 1: diminished gradually and were succeeded by analogous to gentle pressure
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  Speaker 1: on all the muscles. That the respiration was not diminished
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  Speaker 1: is not only clear by the subsequent context, but by
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  Speaker 1: the use of the plural were the sentence. No doubt
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  Speaker 1: was thus intended. In less than half a minute, the
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  Speaker 1: respiration being continued, these feelings diminished gradually and were succeeded
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  Speaker 1: by a sensation analogous to gentle pressure on all the muscles.
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  Speaker 1: A hundred similar instances go to show that the MS,
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  Speaker 1: so inconsiderably published, was merely a rough note book meant
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  Speaker 1: only for the writer's own eye. But an inspection of
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  Speaker 1: the pamphlet will convince almost any thinking person of the
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  Speaker 1: truth of my suggestion. The fact is, Sir Humphry Davy
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  Speaker 1: was about the last man in the world to commit
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  Speaker 1: himself on scientific topics. Not only had he a more
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  Speaker 1: than ordinary dislike to quackery, but he was morbidly afraid
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  Speaker 1: of appearing empirical, so that, however fully he might have
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  Speaker 1: been convinced that he was on the right train in
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  Speaker 1: the matter now in question, he would never have spoken
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  Speaker 1: out until he had everything ready for the most practical demonstration.
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  Speaker 1: I verily believe that his last moments would have been
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  Speaker 1: rendered wretched. Could he have suspected that his wishes in
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  Speaker 1: regard to burning this diary full of crude speculations would
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  Speaker 1: have been unattended to, as it seems they were, I
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  Speaker 1: say his wishes for that he meant to include this
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  Speaker 1: note book among the miscellaneous papers directed to be burnt.
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  Speaker 1: I think there can be no manner of doubt whether
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  Speaker 1: it escaped the flames by good fortune or by bad.
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  Speaker 1: Yet remains to be seen that the passages quoted above,
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  Speaker 1: with the other similar ones referred to, gave Vaughan Kempelean
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  Speaker 1: a hint. I do not in the slightest degree question,
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  Speaker 1: but I repeat it. Yet remains to be seen whether
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  Speaker 1: this momentous discovery, itself momentous, under any circumstances, will be
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  Speaker 1: of service or disservice to mankind at large. That Vaughan
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  Speaker 1: Kemplin and his immediate friends will reap a rich harvest.
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  Speaker 1: It would be folly to doubt for a moment they
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  Speaker 1: will scarcely be so weak as not to realize in
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  Speaker 1: time by large purchases of houses and land with other
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  Speaker 1: property of intrinsic value. In the Brief Account of Vaughan Kemplin,
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  Speaker 1: which appeared in the Home Journal and has since been
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  Speaker 1: extensively copied, several misapprehensions of the German original seem to
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  Speaker 1: have been made by the translator, who professes to have
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  Speaker 1: taken the passage from a late number of the Presbourg schnellpost.
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  Speaker 1: Velli has evidently been misconceived, as it often is, and
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  Speaker 1: what the translator renders by sorrows is probably light, in
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  Speaker 1: which in its true version sufferings would give a totally
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  Speaker 1: different complexion to the whole account. But of course much
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  Speaker 1: of this is merely guess on my part. Vaughan Kemplin, however,
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  Speaker 1: is by no means a misanthrope in appearance, at least,
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  Speaker 1: whatever he may be. In fact, my acquaintance with him
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  Speaker 1: was casual altogether, and I am scarcely warranted in saying
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  Speaker 1: that I know him at all. But to have seen
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  Speaker 1: and conversed with a man of so prodigious a notoriety
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  Speaker 1: as he has attained or will attain in a few days,
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  Speaker 1: is not a small matter as times go. The literary
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  Speaker 1: world speaks of him confidently as a native of Presburg,
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  Speaker 1: misled perhaps by the account in the home Journal. But
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  Speaker 1: I am pleased in being able to state positively, since
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  Speaker 1: I have it from his own lips, that he was
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  Speaker 1: born in Utica, in the state of New York, although
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  Speaker 1: both his parents I believe are of Presburg descent. The
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  Speaker 1: family is connected in some way with Malzo of Automaton
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  Speaker 1: chess player memory. In person, he is short and stout,
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  Speaker 1: with large, fat blue eyes, sandy hair, and whiskers A
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  Speaker 1: wide but pleasing mouth, fine teeth, and I think a
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  Speaker 1: Roman knows there is some defect in one of his feet.
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  Speaker 1: His address is frank, and his whole manner noticeable for bonamie. Altogether,
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  Speaker 1: he looks, speaks, and acts as little like a misanthrope
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  Speaker 1: as any man I ever saw. We were fellow sojourners
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  Speaker 1: for a week about six years ago, at Earl's Hotel
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  Speaker 1: in Providence, Rhode Island, and I presume that I conversed
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  Speaker 1: with him at various times, for some three or four
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  Speaker 1: hours altogether. His principal topics were those of the day,
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  Speaker 1: and nothing that fell from him led me to suspect
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  Speaker 1: his scientific attainments. He left the hotel before me, intending
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  Speaker 1: to go to New York and thence to Bremen. It
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  Speaker 1: was in the latter city that his great discovery was
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  Speaker 1: first made public, or rather it was there that he
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  Speaker 1: was first suspected of having made it. This is about
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  Speaker 1: all that I personally know of the now immortal Vaughan Kemplon,
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  Speaker 1: But I have thought that even these few details would
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  Speaker 1: of interest for the public. There can be little question
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  Speaker 1: that most of the marvelous rumors afloat about this affair
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  Speaker 1: are pure inventions, entitled to about as much credit as
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  Speaker 1: the story of Aladdin's Lamp. And yet in a case
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  Speaker 1: of this kind, as in the case of the discoveries
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  Speaker 1: in California, it is clear that the truth may be
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  Speaker 1: stranger than fiction. The following anecdote at Las Least, is
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  Speaker 1: so well authenticated that we may receive it implicitly. Vaughan
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  Speaker 1: Kemplin had never been even tolerably well off during his
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  Speaker 1: residence at Bremen, and often it was well known he
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  Speaker 1: had been put to extreme shifts in order to raise
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  Speaker 1: trifling sums. When the great excitement occurred about the forgery
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  Speaker 1: on the house of Gutsmith and Company, suspicion was directed
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  Speaker 1: toward Vaughan Kemplin on account of his having purchased a
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  Speaker 1: considerable property in Gasbridge Lane, and his refusing, when questioned
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  Speaker 1: to explain how he became possessed of the purchase money.
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  Speaker 1: He was at length arrested, but nothing decisive appearing against
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  Speaker 1: him was in the end set at liberty. The police, however,
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  Speaker 1: kept a strict watch upon his movements, and thus discovered
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  Speaker 1: that he left home frequently, taking always the same road,
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  Speaker 1: and invariably giving his watchers the slip in the neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: of that labyrinth of narrow and crooked passages known by
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  Speaker 1: the flashed name of the Dondergat. Finally, by dint of
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  Speaker 1: great perseverance, they traced him to a garret in an
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  Speaker 1: old house of seven stories in an alley called flat Splats,
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  Speaker 1: and coming upon him, suddenly found him as they imagined,
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of his counterfeiting operations. His agitation is
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  Speaker 1: represented as so excessive that the officers had not the
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  Speaker 1: slightest doubt of his guilt. After hand cuffing him, they
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  Speaker 1: searched his room, or rather rooms, for it appears he
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  Speaker 1: occupied all the mansard opening into the garret where they
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  Speaker 1: caught him was a closet ten feet by eight fitted
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  Speaker 1: up with some chemical apparatus of which the object has
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  Speaker 1: not yet been ascertained. In one corner of the closet
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  Speaker 1: was a very small furnace with a glowing fire in it,
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  Speaker 1: and on the fire a kind of duplicate crucible, two
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  Speaker 1: crucibles connected by a tube. One of these crucibles was
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  Speaker 1: nearly full of lead, in a state of fusion, but
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  Speaker 1: not reaching up to the aperture of the tube, which
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  Speaker 1: was close to the brim. The other crucible had some
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  Speaker 1: liquid in it, which, as the officers entered, seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be furiously dissipating in vapor. They relate that, on finding
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  Speaker 1: himself taken, Kempelean seized the crucibles with both hands, which
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  Speaker 1: were encased in gloves that afterwards turned out to be asbestic,
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  Speaker 1: and through the contents on the tiled floor. It was
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  Speaker 1: now that they handcuffed him, and before proceeding to ransack
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  Speaker 1: the premises, they searched his person, but nothing unusual was
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  Speaker 1: found about him, excepting a paper parcel in his coat
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  Speaker 1: pocket containing what was afterward ascertained to be a mixture
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  Speaker 1: of antimony in some unknown substance in nearly but not
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  Speaker 1: quite equal proportions. All attempts at analyzing the unknown substance
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  Speaker 1: have so far failed, but that it will ultimately be
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  Speaker 1: analyzed is not to be doubted. Passing out of the
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  Speaker 1: closet with their prisoner, the officers went through a sort
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  Speaker 1: of ante chamber, in which nothing material was found, to
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  Speaker 1: the chemist's sleeping room. They here rummaged some drawers and boxes,
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  Speaker 1: but discovered only a few papers of no importance and
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  Speaker 1: some good coin, silver and gold at length, looking under
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  Speaker 1: the bed, they they saw a large common hair trunk
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  Speaker 1: without hinges, hasp or lock, and with the top lying
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  Speaker 1: carelessly across the bottom portion. Upon attempting to draw this
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  Speaker 1: trunk out from under the bed, they found that, with
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  Speaker 1: their united strength there were three of them, all powerful men,
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  Speaker 1: they could not stir it one inch. Much astonished at this,
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  Speaker 1: one of them crawled under the bed, and looking into
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  Speaker 1: the trunk, said, no wonder we couldn't move it. Why
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  Speaker 1: it's full to the brim of old bits of brass.
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  Speaker 1: Putting his feet now against the wall so as to
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  Speaker 1: get a good purchase, and pushing with all his force,
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  Speaker 1: while his companions pulled with all theirs. The trunk, with
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  Speaker 1: much difficulty, was slid out from under the bed, and
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  Speaker 1: its contents examined. The supposed brass with which it was
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  Speaker 1: filled was all in small, smooth pieces, varying from the
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  Speaker 1: size of a pea to that of a dollar. But
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  Speaker 1: the pieces were irregular in shape, although more or less flat,
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  Speaker 1: looking upon the whole very much as lead looks when
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  Speaker 1: thrown upon the ground in a molten state. And their
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  Speaker 1: suffered to grow cool. Now, not one of these officers
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  Speaker 1: for a moment suspected this metal to be anything but brass.
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  Speaker 1: The idea of its being gold never entered their brains.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, how could such a wild fancy have entered it?
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  Speaker 1: And their astonishment may be well conceived when the next
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  Speaker 1: day it became known all over Bremen that the lot
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  Speaker 1: of brass which they had carted so contemptuously to the
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  Speaker 1: police office without putting themselves to the trouble of pocketing
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  Speaker 1: the smallest scrap was not only gold, real gold, but
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  Speaker 1: gold far finer than any employed in coinage. Gold in fact,
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  Speaker 1: absolutely pure virgin, without the slightest appreciable alloy. I need
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  Speaker 1: not go over the details of van Kemplan's confession as
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  Speaker 1: far as it went and release, for these are familiar
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  Speaker 1: to the public that he has actually realized in spirit
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  Speaker 1: and in effect, if not to the letter the old
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  Speaker 1: camera of the Philosopher's Stone, No sane person is at
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  Speaker 1: liberty to doubt. The opinions of Arago are, of course
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  Speaker 1: entitled to the greatest consideration. But he is by no
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  Speaker 1: means infallible, and what he says of Bismuth in his
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: report to the Academy must be taken Come Granosolus, the
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  Speaker 1: simple truth is that up to this period all analysis
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  Speaker 1: has failed, and until Vaughan Kemplan chooses to let us
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  Speaker 1: have the key to his own published enigma, it is
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  Speaker 1: more than probable that the matter will remain for years
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  Speaker 1: in static quo. All that as yet can fairly be
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  Speaker 1: said to be known is that pure gold can be
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  Speaker 1: made at will and very readily from lead, in connection
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  Speaker 1: with certain other substances, in kind and in proportions unknown. Speculation,
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  Speaker 1: of course, is busy as to the immediate and ultimate
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  Speaker 1: results of this discovery, a discovery which few thinking persons
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  Speaker 1: will hesitate in referring to an increased interest in the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: matter of gold, generally by the late developments in California,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And this reflection brings us inevitably to another the exceeding
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  Speaker 1: and opportunitis of von Kemplin's analysis. If many were prevented
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  Speaker 1: from adventuring to California by the mere apprehension that gold
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  Speaker 1: would so materially diminish in value on account of its
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: plentifulness in the minds there as to render the speculation
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  Speaker 1: of going so far in search of it a doubtful one,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: what impression will be wrought now upon the minds of
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  Speaker 1: those about to emigrate, and especially upon the minds of
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  Speaker 1: those actually in the mineral region, by the announcement of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: this astounding discovery of Vaughan Kemplan, a discovery which declares
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  Speaker 1: in so many words, that beyond its intrinsic worth for
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: manufacturing purposes, whatever that worth may be, gold now is,
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  Speaker 1: or at least soon will be. For it cannot be
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  Speaker 1: supposed that Vaughan Kemplan can long retain his secret of
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: no greater value than lead, and of far inferior value
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  Speaker 1: to silver. It is indeed exceedingly difficult to speculate prospectively
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: upon the consequences of the discovery. But one thing may
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: be positively maintained that the announcement of the discovery six
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: months ago would have had material influence in regard to
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the settle of California in Europe. As yet, the most
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: noticeable results have been a rise of two hundred percent
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  Speaker 1: in the price of lead and nearly twenty five percent
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  Speaker 1: that of silver.