Great frauds in history: Prescott Jernegan’s gold hoax

Prescott Jernegan claimed to be able to extract gold from seawater. He couldn't, of course. But he persuaded an awful lot of people that he could

Prescott Jernegan was born in December 1866 and as a toddler spent a few years on his father's whaling ship before his family settled in Edgartown, Massachusetts. Jernegan later graduated from Brown University and briefly worked as a schoolteacher before attending Newton Theological Seminary and becoming a Baptist preacher. His preaching proved controversial and he struggled to earn enough money.

One day, while recovering from typhoid fever, he had a dream about seawater turning into gold. Hooking up with childhood friend Charles Fisher, he later claimed to have found a way to extract gold from seawater at a reasonable cost. (Seawater does in fact contain gold, but in such low concentrations that extraction is uneconomic.)

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri