Lead Transmuted To Gold Already Done Years Ago

There was a subscription only of a science Energy Journal magazine many years back that had 2 page article + photo of transmutation of lead into gold. Several of my mags were loaned out and never returned. It was the guy who built a machined model of the Pogue gas vapor carb and had put it on his Datsun 6 cyl pickup truck . He said now 60 miles per gallon gasoline.
The article said heated pot of lead to molten plasma state, now electrically impressionable, with central electrode with forced frequency from adjustable frequency generator slowly changed the color to gold at setting.  There may have been another catalyst involved. (The tv program Blind Frog Ranch found out that iridium dug from ground mixed with sand turned into actual metal when fired in a blast crucible. )

What sort of pot was this that managed to contain a substance heated to plasma state? Sounds a little more complicated than something I could whip up in my back yard.