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Nuclear physicists bombard targets with high-energy particles in order (or chaos) to prove the schematic of their mindset with appropriate experimental results. In recent years, however, the discovery of cold fusion has quite upset the world view of conventional physicists, who generally deny the possibility that Nature allows for other means of transmutation. Yet, there is considerable historical evidence that many types of transmutations have been accomplished without particle accelerators, long before Pons and Fleischman announced their discovery of cold fusion. There is so much credible documentation of low-energy transmutation that, in the words of Rupert Gould, "did it relate to any more probable event, we should be compelled either to accept it or cease putting any faith in recorded testimony."

Among the many examples that can be cited, "biological transmutation" is the best developed and well-known. About forty years ago, Dr. Louis Kervran presented the idea that sodium, potassium, and dozens of other elements change into each other under certain natural conditions in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Biological transmutations have been demonstrated, crucial experiments replicated, and the theoretical principles verified by many scientists who are finding new industrial, medical and agricultural applications of the discoveries.

Inspired by the pioneering work of Dr. Kervran, Dr. George Ohsawa sought to transmute sodium into potassium in vitro. The method revealed itself to him in a symbolic dream. Thus inspired, Dr. Ohsawa and Michio Kushi, et al., constructed an experimental electric discharge tube with copper (Yin) and iron (Yang) electrodes and a valve through which to draw a vacuum or admit oxygen (Fig. 3.1). The first transmutation with this equipment was achieved on June 21, 1964. After applying 60 watts of electricity for 30 minutes to heat sodium to a plasma, a molar equivalent of oxygen was introduced. Viewed with a spectroscope, the orange band of sodium gave way to the blue of potassium, according to the formula:

Na²³ + O¹⁶ = K³⁹

Analysis of the reaction product confirmed the result and revealed an unexpected extra: a trace of gold was produced by the combination of Na, O, and K with the Cu and Fe electrodes. Several different metals were tested as electrode materials. Neon and argon atmospheres were found to enhance the yield of potassium and other elements. External heating of the reaction tube also served to ionize the sodium.

Dr. Louis Kervran noted these experiments in his book Transmutations A Faible Energie:

The calcium (as oxide) accumulates in scales on the cathode.

Kushi and Ohsawa, et al., proceeded to develop their process for industrial-scale production. They estimated that potassium could be manufactured for 1% of the current price. In a correspondence to Ken Jones (12 October 1980), Michio Kushi stated:

The researchers also had no patent with which to protect their interests. Ohsawa and Kushi then turned their attention to the manufacture of steel by transmutation of carbon and oxygen according to the formula:

2 (C¹² + O¹⁶) = 2 Si²⁸ = Ni⁵⁶ = Fe⁵⁶

The experimental arrangements worked as predicted, and produced several other elements from combinations of C and O with atmospheric nitrogen, etc:

The new form of iron was called GOS (George Ohsawa Steel). The experimental method is as follows:

In another experimental configuration (Fig. 3.3), the reaction was cooled by dry ice. When sparked with carbon rods, the CO₂ vapors also yielded iron, etc..

In 1994, R. Sundaresan and J.Bockris (Texas A&M) reported that they had observed "Anomalous Reactions During Arcing Between Carbon Rods In Water:

Also in 1994, another group of researchers (M. Singh, et al.) at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Bombay) reported their "Verification of the G. Ohsawa Experiment for Anomalous Production of Iron from Carbon Arc in Water:

In 1996, Kenjin Sasaki reported his successful experimental replication of the carbon arc production of iron. He used a 99.9999% pure graphite crucible and rod with a 100V/10A electric welder. The crucible was cooled. The arc (8-10A) struck high-purity carbon powder 4 times for 1 minute each time. The yield of iron was recovered with a magnet. Further experiments conducted by C. Akbar (Kushi Research Institute) "indicate that voltage potential and current density are important in the formation of iron in chemically pure carbon."

Toby Grotz also conducted this experiment and reported the results in detail in 1996. He tested activated charcoal, activated carbon, and coal. No iron was produced from charcoal, but activated carbon did yield magnetic material. Tests were performed with copper and aluminum plates and rods to eliminate the possibility that the carbon rod and copper plate might be releasing iron:

J. Bockris and associates replicated the experiment using the underwater arcing method, and found only microgram amounts of iron after 24 hours. When the experiment was repeated with the reaction vessel covered to exclude air, no iron was found.

Those results suggest that at least some of the reported yields of iron might be due to the arc coagulating ORMEs (Orbitally Rearranged Monoatomic Elements) existing in the Earth's atmosphere. ORMEs are virtually undetectable by all conventional methods except infrared analysis, which can distinguish a certain characteristic doublet. As David Hudson discovered in the 1980s, ORMEs can be converted to metallic form by certain processes involving carbon or nitrogen, which are used to insert an electron in the d orbital shell of the atoms. The complete process is described in his Australian patent.

Dr. Joseph McKibben has published his suggestion that the transmutative production of iron from carbon may be due to what he calls a subquark particle, which has a mass of about 1.15 nucleons:

In the 1980s, Michio Kushi resumed his experiments with the "aim of finding methods of mass production":

Since the initial experiments were conducted by George Ohsawa and Michio Kushi in the 1970s, several other researchers have reported the same results and more, thanks to modern analytical equipment, computers, and communication. The worlds of low-energy transmutations have become much more accessible to us. New discoveries are being reported at an increasing rate in the scientific literature, particularly cold fusion and biological transmutations. Perhaps within a few decades we shall see the mass production of elements on demand. (1, 7, 10-18, 22, 23)

1 (C + O) = Si 5 (C + O) = Ce

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In 1908, Milorad Z. Jovivitsch (Bergau-Akademie in Belgrad) published two unique articles in the journal Monatschrift fur Chemie, describing "The Mysterious Deficiency of Carbon in the Condensation Products from Ethylene and Acetylene."

Jovivitsch had been experimenting with electrical discharges in these gases, following the methods used by Berthelot. The latter had shown that the action of a silent electric discharge upon saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbons will split off hydrogen and produce condensation products. (4, 6, 12)

Jovivitsch introduced pure dry ethylene or acetylene and oxygen into an ozonizer containing copper oxide, and electrified the mixture with 100 volts/3 amps for 3 days and 2 nights. His analysis of the resulting compounds showed a deficiency in the theoretical amount of carbon and hydrogen, and an excess of oxygen. Several determinations of the carbon and hydrogen taken together indicated a 7% deficiency in the ethylene reaction product, and a 22% deficiency in the case of acetylene.

Berthelot had accounted for these losses by attributing them to oxygen absorption from the atmosphere. Jovivitsch excluded that possibility by employing pure gases, and he immediately preserved the products in hermetically sealed tubes. There was practically no possibility of absorbing any significant amount of atmospheric oxygen. He also determined that the condensed ethylene loses no carbon on exposure to air, and that the condensed acetylene remains unchanged after many weeks. Comparative analysis of the reaction products preserved in tubes and those exposed to air showed them to be in close agreement.

Jovivitsch attempted to explain the scientific riddle of this chemical anomaly by attributing it either to experimental error or the transformation of elements. Because he took great care and made very precise analyses, Jovivitsch was convinced that a transmutation had occurred. His opinion was reinforced by the fact that the condensation products were radioactive.

In 1913, the French engineer M.E. De Boismenu, the director of an electric carbide furnace plant in Paris, announced the issuance of his patent for a very easy new method to produce artificial diamonds in an electric furnace. The largest specimens produced at that time was 2-1/2 millimeters in diameter; it was "cut with 32 facets with remarkable dexterity."

The furnace was built of refractory brick and had two carbon electrodes (6-1/2" diam.), one of which could be adjusted manually. The bed was packed with a mixture of powdered lime and carbon; this was found to be the best way to support a trough, made of fused calcium carbide (CaC), in which the carbon electrodes operated. The trough was filled with 8 lb of CaC fragments and melted (34 V/800 A /6 hr). More CaC was piled on the trough, and the whole was covered with more of the lime-carbon mixture, and finally with refractory bricks. The furnace was run for another 12 hours. The negative pole became covered with a black carbonaceous deposit weighing about 700 gr. The mass was soaked in water and the diamonds were picked out; their size varied from 1/2 to 2-1/2 mm diameter. The last reported run of the furnace (12 hr @ 700-800 A/24-25 V) produced over a dozen diamonds, some as large as 1/10 inch diameter. They were indistinguishable from natural diamonds. (21)

A similar method was developed by Felix Sebba, a chemical engineer at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Blacksburg, VA). He improved on the technique developed by Charles V. Burton in 1905 (C dissolved in molten Pb-Ca, then cooled). Sebba dissolved calcium carbide in molten lead. Steam at 550^o C was passed over the melt and reacted with the Ca (but not the Pb), forming calcium hydroxide which forms a slag on the surface. Some of the carbon crystallizes as diamonds. Although these methods are not transmutations, they are most interesting allotropisms. (5, 19)

Lea Potts was featured in Life magazine (March 1993) for his production of diamonds with a blowtorch.

In 1880, J.B. Hannay of Glasgow made diamonds from Dippel's Oil, catalyzed by lithium metal in thick iron tubes at red heat. The minute yield (14 mg) of Type B blue diamonds exhibited all the characteristics and properties of natural diamonds. Hannay was attempting to produce nascent carbon. He found that when carbon is liberated from a nitrogenous hydrocarbon in the presence of Li, Na, Mg or K at red heat and high pressure, the metal hydride is formed, and the carbon reacts with (or is stabilized by) the nitrogen and assumes diamond form. No diamonds were found in experiments without N. (8, 9)

Dippel's Oil is a nitrogenous by-product of the dry distillation manufacture of bone char. The principal N-ingredient is pyridine. The iron tubes were 20" x 4" o.d. x 1/2" i.d.. Most of them ruptured during the experiments.

The largest yield was obtained from a mixture of "paraffin spirit boiling at 75^o [a mixture of light paraffins], 90%, together with 10% of carefully rectified bone-oil [Dippel's Oil, bp 115-150^o]; these were placed with metallic Li (4 gr) in an iron tube" (20" x 4" o.d. x 1/2" i.d.) which was heated to redness for 14 hours. The tubes usually exploded, or the vapors escaped through the porous iron, or combined with it. Only 4 experiments (out of 34) were successful.

In his Bakerian Lecture for 1918, Sir Charles Parsons reported that he had repeated Hannay's experiments without success. He doubted that Hannay had made genuine diamonds. Bannister and Lonsdale, however, obtained samples of Hannay's diamonds from the British Museum; X-ray analysis showed they are genuine. (2, 3, 20)

Hannay's approach to diamonds is interesting, but it is not feasible for industrial application. Several other methods of manufacturing diamonds have been developed since then, but none are so simple as the technique developed by De Boismenu.

5. Burton, Charles V.: Nature 72 (#1869): 1 (24 August 1905); "Artificial Diamonds"