Born 27 October 1884. Inventor Harry Fell obtained the British patent 14.204: the method of transforming wheat into gold.

Fell was not the first or the last one who tried to pass through King Midas. One of the main objectives of alchemy over the centuries has been to obtain gold from cheaper materials. For example, the Ebers Papirans (c. 16th century) and papiros of Leida and Stockholm (c. Century III) In Ancient Egypt, various techniques and formulas for gold and silver manufacturing have already been tested.

But the prize for trying to make the most precious material with the cheapest raw material will lie in the German Hennig Brand. Thanks to his wife's endowment, Brand had the time and means to dedicate it to the art of alchemy, and in 1675 he was dedicated to transforming human urine into gold, assuming that its color was similar to that of his origin. He collected 50 bottles of pepper and for months distilled, mixed, dissolved, heated, screened ... In the end, urine also lost its golden color, obtaining a translucent white matter. After accepting defeat, Brand turned off the laboratory candle and then saw that this substance was shining in the dark. Unintentionally, instead of gold, he got the phosphorus. But a lot of work had to be done to get some phosphorus, and in the end, it wasn't even for that that that the discovery of German was used.

Harry Felle also chose cheaper and cleaner raw materials. But his recipe was much easier: mix the wheat grains and the short straw, half and half, and soak in water for ten hours, at 59º F (15º C); after ten hours, remove the mixture, let stand 24 hours, at 60º F (15.5º C); after the day, the membrane lining the liquid will be golden!

All attempts to make gold for 4,000 years have failed. So why did Felle patent his method? My disorder still has about ten hours left. If next week you can't find the signature of this page, you know...