The Clue Society was officially reactivated by Sir Francis Bacon during the reign of Elizabeth I.
The Society was an extension of an earlier Greek fraternal order whose name loosely translates to
"The Khemit Order." Khemit, or Al-Khem, as the Arabs termed it, was ancient Egypt. The English
words "alchemy" and "chemistry" stem from this Egyptian root word. Under the Greek scholarship,
the Society was devoted to the study of records left to the Greeks as they inherited rule of Egypt
under the Ptolemies. Many advances in warfare, engineering and the sciences are believed to have
come from the laboratories of the Order.
Sir Francis Bacon came across references to the Order in his Continental travels as a young man in
the employ of the Queen. It is said that he was led to a a series of hieroglyphs inscribed on
public works of Greek and Roman origin. Mr. Bacon had a clue. Having no Rosetta Stone, the
enterprising Mr. Bacon made his way to Egypt to seek out any knowledge of these curious symbols.
To his surprise and utter amazement, Mr. Bacon found a Coptic priest in Cairo who had seen these
symbols before. The symbols weren't proper hieroglyphs, the priest explained, but were a coded
series of Asiatic characters used by the Khemit Order in Greek times. The priest had learned of
the order through popular legend, and added that most scholars of his age were able to read the
characters. Being somewhere near ninety at that time, the priest laughed that scholars his age
were getting scarce.
Mr. Bacon learned of the aims, structure and history of the order from the priest and a series of
transcriptions were made over the course of the next few months. As Mr. Bacon made his way back
to England, he contacted many of the luminaries of the Middle East and Continent and told them of
his discoveries. He and his compatriots were quick to recognize the advances made by this Order
in the past, and determined to reform the group to serve the betterment of mankind in the Modern world.
The Society operated in the background during the Enlightenment, but as membership rolls swelled, the
arts and sciences blossomed. It is said that several other fraternal orders of the time were quickly
brought to market, as it were, to cash in on the desirability of membership in the Clue Society.
As the Industrial Revolution came into full swing in England, the Society took an active role in
the optimization and standardization of machine technology and engineering. As the Revolution spread
into the United States during the next centuries, the Society was transplanted by Industrialists of
the time to the soil of the New World. The Society took root and spread quickly, with chapters in
nearly every major US city, Canada, Mexico, the Indies, Argentina and Peru by the mid-Nineteenth Century.
Today, the Clue Society is active in philanthropic and charitable causes, names among its members
many of the brightest minds of our time, and, just as in ages past, is dedicated to the betterment
of mankind.