Elementary My Dear Sandman: Desmond and Dodds’ Devices

Master chemists Albert Desmond and Wesley Dodds developed elemental guns* which could alter the molecular composition of objects, even organic life forms, which caused the Fastest Men Alive some headaches. While Desmond was granted transmutation powers like his Earth-Two counterpart, John "Sargon" Sargent", he needed to harness these abilities through a special handheld weapon of his own design. Unlike Wesley's Earth-One counterpart, Doctor Garrett Sanford who like Dodds developed sleep-inducing technology and likewise became the Sandman, Wesley also developed his experimental silicoid gun with transmutation capabilities.

Constantly in conflict with his duality of nature, both a good and evil personality, Albert adopted the alter ego of Mister Element... and later Doctor Alchemy... becoming an early arch-enemy of the Flash. Desmond was eventually able to completely reject his sinister disposition, with help from both the Flash and the hero's secret identity, police scientist Barry Allen. Despite this. Albert would eventually use his element gun years later to combat his distant cousin, Alvin Desmond. Alvin had like his relative succumbed to a criminal career, adopting the Doctor Alchemy alias. Albert combated him as Mister Element, with Albert's elemental gun counteracting Alvin's Philospher's Stone, (which the former used ar times in place of his gun).

Tragically, Wesley's first attempt to activate his revolutionary silicon gun left his adopted ward and sidekick Sandy Hawkins transformed into a Silicoid monster possessing a sinister disposition. Kept in a slumbered state for decades until a cure was found to reverse his state, Sandy developed mastery over his shape-changing abilities. Meanwhile, Dodds used a refined form of his silicoid gun in his crime fighting in the mid 1960s, and later used it during a time travel adventure during the reign of Genghis Khan in the Gobi Desert. 

While initially coming into conflict with his world's Flash, and the rest of the Justice Society of whom Sandman was a charter member, Sandy revealed his heroic nature. During his years-long semi comatose state, Hawkins was able to expunge his barbaric personality, manifested when he was initially transformed.

Although Hawkins was eventually transformed back to his natural carbon-based physical state, other actual "Sandmen" in the form of Khan's ancient minions whom Sandman battled still resided in the Gobi Desert up until the mid 20th century, when they battled the Flash. A similar process on Earth-One spawned the Quarrmer "Sand Superman”, before it returned to its “opposite charged” realm… which would’ve been in the Anti-Matter universe of Qward.

The silicon creatures in the glass and sand forms were Earth-Two's version of the Metamorphs, such as Rex Mason, and of the Dust Devils from planet Rhynthar-One. Mason and others like him were transformed using processed including radiation from the meteorite "Orb of Ra" which seemed to operate on principles similar to Desmond's elemental gun and Dodd's silicoid gun.