| Level | Item |
| Reference Number (click to see whole series/group) | G1/363 |
| Extent | 1 file |
| Title | GOVERNOR'S FILE: ERIC E DUTT'S DISCOVERY OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE |
| Date | 22 Jun 1935 - 6 Sep 1946 |
| Admin History | Eric Dutt, an Anglo Indian resident in Switzerland, contacted Harry Arthur Siepmann in 1933 claiming to have discovered a process (whose inspiration seems to have been Rutherford's early work on the atom) whereby tungsten and boron could be transmuted to gold. The process was, of course, bogus, but the implications for the gold market had it been genuine seemed so devastating that knowledge of it was confined to a narrow circle at the top of the Bank. |
| Description | The file contains notes of meetings with Dutt and correspondence with Central Bank governors and Whitehall about the process, and papers relating to Professor Andrade's clandestine visit to Switzerland to investigate Dutt's process. |
| Original Reference | S53_3 |