The Moon Metal

In Short

When unlimited gold deposits in the Antarctic wipe out the monetary value of the world's standard currency, global finance teeters on the brink of total collapse. Enter Dr. Max Syx, a sinister figure who introduces "artemisium," a dazzling, lightweight metal of unknown origin, to serve as the planet's new financial backing. But as greedy prospectors and sharp-eyed engineers probe the secret of his Wyoming facility, they discover that Syx is not mining the Earth at all. Garrett Putman Serviss’s short 1900 novel survives as an inventive early science fiction tale of lunar beam technology, market manipulation, and cosmic hubris.

The Story

The economic world collapses when polar expeditions uncover inexhaustible gold seams near the South Pole, rendering the precious metal as cheap as common dirt. Facing ruin, international financial leaders gather to find a replacement standard. During their desperate summit, an eccentric scientist named Dr. Max Syx presents himself, introducing a mysterious new element called artemisium. The metal is light, displays shifting, radiant colors in sunlight, and possesses four times the value of gold. Syx offers to supply the world's mints from a massive stash of 2,500 tons hidden under the Grand Teton in Wyoming, demanding absolute control over its production.

Governments adopt artemisium, and Syx becomes the financial master of the world. Driven by curiosity and greed, thousands of prospectors rush to the Grand Teton, hoping to find free veins of the metal. Among them is Andrew Hall, a brilliant young mining engineer who grows suspicious of Syx's operations. Tunneling secretively into the rock adjacent to Syx’s mountain complex, Hall makes a startling discovery: the doctor’s heavily guarded mine is a total sham. Workers merely dump raw rock back into hidden chutes while molten metal flows out the other side.

Determined to learn the truth, Hall and the narrator execute a dangerous mountain climb up the sheer cliffs of the Grand Teton using a specialized balloon and grapples. Near the peak, they observe a hidden laboratory outfitted with massive parabolic mirrors and dome-like machinery directed at the sky. Hall calculates the operating hours of Syx's machinery and realizes a key pattern: the apparatus operates exclusively when the moon is above the horizon. Syx is using a focused force beam to draw atomic artemisium directly from the lunar surface—specifically from the bright rays of the crater Tycho.

Armed with this knowledge, Hall retreats to a private laboratory near Lake Tahoe, constructs his own lunar transformer, and begins extracting artemisium independently. Shortly after, a catastrophic explosion destroys Syx's Teton facility, seemingly killing the villainous doctor. Hall assumes a monopoly over the metal, only for mysterious reports to surface worldwide. Syx’s ghost—or his living likeness—begins appearing in remote corners of the globe, handing the extraction secret to local chemists. As new artemisium plants sprout everywhere, the market is flooded once more, destroying the global economy again and leaving Syx's mocking face forever imprinted upon the moon.

How It Unfolds

The golden collapse Reports of boundless gold deposits at the South Pole quickly turn out to be true, overwhelming the global market, rendering gold worthless, and driving international financiers into a panic over how to establish a new monetary standard.

The arrival of Syx Dr. Max Syx presents a radiant, light-shifting metal called artemisium to global leaders, promising to supply all the world's mints from his hidden vault beneath the Grand Teton mountains in exchange for financial control.

The false rush Thousands of prospectors flock to Wyoming to mine surface trace deposits of artemisium, but engineer Andrew Hall bores a secret tunnel into Syx's mountain facility and discovers that the entire mining operation is a scripted visual deception.

The perilous ascent Hall and the narrator scale the dangerous, vertical cliffs of the Grand Teton using a balloon-anchored rope, reaching a hidden high-altitude laboratory where they witness giant parabolic mirrors operating under cover of a closing dome.

The lunar revelation By matching the machinery's schedule to the lunar cycle, Hall deduces that Syx uses force beams to strip artemisium directly from the moon's surface, leading Hall to replicate the apparatus and build his own machine in California.

The final revenge After Syx's mill explodes, Hall takes over production, but spectral sightings of Syx precede the sudden leak of the extraction secret to global chemists, flooding the world with artemisium and leaving Syx's spectral likeness fixed upon the lunar face.

The People

• Dr. Max Syx: A tall, mysterious scientist with a satanic profile and a mockery-filled sneer. He wants absolute financial command of the globe by monopolizing the supply of artemisium, and he stops at nothing—using lethally scorched force-beams against mob attacks—to keep his secret intact. When dethroned, his desire for vengeance drives him to ruin the world economy out of pure spite.
• Andrew Hall: An observant, daring young mining engineer who refuses to accept Syx's explanations. He wants to uncover the physical reality behind the Grand Teton operation. Through calculated mountaineering, keen astronomical observation, and relentless experimentation, he solves the lunar extraction process, though he ultimately fails to foresee Syx's vindictive final countermove.
• President Boon: The head of the financial commission who initially accepts Syx's terms to avert global panic. He seeks economic stability above all else, representing the desperate establish-ment that places the world's wealth into the hands of a single enigmatic figure.
• The Narrator: Hall’s loyal companion and sounding board. He accompanies Hall on the dangerous climb up the Grand Teton, witnesses the bizarre phenomena of the artemisium ray, and serves as the sensible observer recording the dramatic shift in human commerce.

In Its Own Voice

When the enigmatic doctor first reveals his identity to the gathered financiers, his metal card leaves them spellbound before his name appears:

As he held the card up to get a better light upon it a stray sunbeam from the window fell across the metal and instantly it bloomed with exquisite colors!

Later, as Hall peers into the secret tunnel beneath the mountain, he catches a glimpse of the mastermind at work:

The tunnel before me was brilliantly illuminated, and within three feet of the wall of rock behind which we crouched stood Dr. Syx, his dark profile looking almost satanic in the sharp contrast of light and shadow.

Finally, Hall details the precise astronomical connection that uncovers the mystery of the Grand Teton mill:

Note this, the hours when the engine worked were invariably the hours during which the moon was above the horizon!

What It's Really About

Beneath its thriller narrative, the book explores the artificiality of human value systems and the fragility of global economics. Serviss demonstrates how easily society’s foundational constructs—such as monetary currency—can be disrupted when a supposedly scarce resource becomes infinite. The novel also interrogates the ethics of scientific secrecy and monopoly. Dr. Syx represents the dangerous convergence of absolute technological knowledge and unchecked personal power. In contrast, Andrew Hall represents empirical curiosity, yet he too succumbs to the temptation of monetary gain once he masters the lunar secret. Ultimately, the story asks whether humanity can ever maintain stability when technological advances outpace economic frameworks, suggesting that human greed will repeatedly break whatever system it constructs.

Why Read It Today

This short novel offers a quick, entertaining glimpse into turn-of-the-century speculative fiction. Modern readers will enjoy its surprisingly sharp prediction of beam technology, space-based resource extraction, and complex market manipulation. Serviss writes with a crisp, journalistic pacing that skips unnecessary padding, moving quickly from financial boardrooms to high-altitude mountain ascents.

The story does carry the marks of its era: character development is secondary to the central scientific gimmick, the prose features occasional period melodrama, and the plot relies on classic "mad scientist" tropes. However, its brief length prevents these dated elements from becoming tedious. It remains a fascinating historical artifact for anyone interested in early American sci-fi, pre-Apollo concepts of the moon, or speculative stories about economic collapse. The visual imagery of the glowing, color-shifting artemisium and the haunting image of Syx’s face projected onto the moon leave a lasting, eerie impression.

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