Chemical experiments were performed to examine the usefulness of heavy ion transfer reactions in producing new, neutron-rich actinide nuclides. A general quasi-elastic to deep-inelastic mechanism is proposed, and the utility of this method as opposed to other methods (e.g. complete fusion) is discussed. The relative merits of various techniques of actinide target synthesis are discussed. A description is given of a target system designed to remove the large amounts of heat generated by the passage of a heavy ion beam through matter, thereby maximizing the beam intensity which can be safely used in an experiment. Also described is a general separation scheme for the actinide elements from protactinium (Z = 91) to mendelevium (Z = 101), and fast specific procedures for plutonium, americium and berkelium. The cross sections for the production of several nuclides from the bombardment of {sup 248}Cm with {sup 18}O, {sup 86}Kr and {sup 136}Xe projectiles at several energies near and below the Coulomb barrier were determined. The results are compared with yields from {sup 48}Ca and {sup 238}U bombardments of {sup 248}Cm. Simple extrapolation of the product yields into unknown regions of charge and mass indicates that the use of heavy ion transfer reactions to produce …