Oxidation of pure carbon would produce only a gas - carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide so the white ash is obviously the oxide of some metallic or non metallic impurity in the carbon electrode.  The important question then is - whether carbon electrodes as made today contain the same impurities as they did 20 years ago.  Manufacturing processes are continually being changed.  I know this well because I have spent my life finding ways of making such changes.  If bamboo contains the essential ingredients then I presume that pulverized bamboo fibre could be used to replace the core of a carbon electrode and used in an arc lamp to produce the desired ash.  I would appreciate it if you would let me know whether there have been any recent attempts to make carbon ash and whether curative properties were obtained.

Very truly yours, [signed] A. L. Boegehold

Dear Mr. Boegehold:

Your letter to Miss Huffman @ARE was referred to me for reply.  For many years now there has been no work done on producing or using carbon ash or animated ash.  Note that two different products are specified.  Bamboo or animated ash is bamboo burned in a carbon arc.  Carbon ash is the residue that collects on the glass globe when carbons are burned in a near vacuum.  I agree that the "carbon ash" is probably trace elements or carbon compounds, rather than carbon itself.  You raise an interesting point as to whether the carbons now used are the same as those of 20 yrs ago, or whether the by products of same would be the same.  I don't know.  I enclose some extracts from the readings describing the production of both animated and carbon ash.  Also enclosed is a copy of a letter from a Neils Throost of S. Africa who has produced some ash.  The sample he sent is now being analyzed to determine its composition.  The report is not yet available from the laboratory.  It would be interesting for someone else to make up some of this ash, and see if (by laboratory analyses) the composition was similar to that made by Troost.  Of course the final test would be to try it as suggested in some of readings and see if it had any effect.  If you are interested in making up any I have a friend in the zoology dept of a university who could try it on animals.  I hope the above information will be of help or interest to you.  Hugh Lynn, my brother, usually asks that I answer inquiries of technical nature.  I have a degree in electrical engineering (now employed by local power co.) and am a registered professional engineer in State of Va.

Sincerely, Edgar Evans Cayce (Note: The son of Edgar Cayce, who gave the readings, wrote the above letter.)

Mr. Boegehold and Edgar Evans Cayce were correct.  The way the ash had been made was to allow the carbon to combine with oxygen and form carbon dioxide gas.  The residue that was left was simply impurities from the graphite electrodes.  Spectrographic analysis were done on a number of samples of carbon ash.  In each one, no carbon was present.

This white ash was not as successful as hoped.  The ability of the white ash to cure disease was and is questionable at best.  The white version of carbon ash never became the miracle cure that Mr. Cayce claimed.  Perhaps this is because the white ash did not contain any carbon as Mr. Cayce said it should.  All that was left were oxides of trace minerals and metals.

When in a partial vacuum, the extreme temperature of the electric arc causes the carbon to sublimate. This means it changes directly from a solid into a gas, much like dry ice does. When the gas cools it condenses and binds to itself forming lattices that fold over and form the soccer ball shape of Carbon 60.

When Mr. Cayce described the ash as being white, maybe he was trying to differentiate between the scrapings of the automatic feed mechanism and that which condensed on the glass. In a number of readings he warned that the carbon ash was not prepared properly and that scrapings from the electrodes were being added to the mixture.

  TEXT OF READING 409-2  8/15/29 *

9. (Q) What was wrong with the ash that we received?

[See 165-9 and 165-10 on 7/27/29-8/3/29 in re making it.]

(A) It's just been given, that it's the carbon itself and not the ash of that as  created!