LEAD PROM POLONIUM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 744, 17 February 1910, Page 5

LEAD PROM POLONIUM.

■';;■ RADIO-ACTIVITY. TRANSMUTATION OF "ELEMENTS." . . IMPOETANT STATEMENT. ■ By Telegraph—Press Association-CopyriEht. (Eec. February IG, 11.55 p,m.) . ,' Paris, February IQ. : '.The Academy of Sciences learns that Madame Curie (an early irvestigator of radio-activity),' in corporation with Monsieur do Biei-ne, has isolated a small quantity of polonium, which, far exceeds radium's , radio-active power.' It is five thousandfold rarer," and rapidly disintegrates;:. ■ ■ ' ■'■ '. .;' ~;'■•■ . . i -:'.. ..It is stated that products'of.the disintegration of .polonium are helium and possibly leaij. . The identity of the latter will be shortly established, and , science Trill then possess experimental: proof of the transmutation of a body hitherto believed to ■ be' elementary, -.; ,■;

THE ALCHEMIST'S DREAM-

In an article on radio-activity and the radium group of metals, ajwriter in the "Standard" says: ■.: ■''.- :..;■ -. ■TJadiq-activity' has now been observed in almost'every kind of matter, though in euph. a slight degree that ordinary methods of detection hardly suffice to reveal its existence, ■Firedamp has' iecently been found to: contain six or seven times ,the amount of radium emanation that is generally found in the air of coal •mines, and this, may suggest, an l improved method of detecting the approach of: danger.. V- ; ' : ; . ■ '. ■ ■: .• . - "But more: fascinating than any, ■of those. purely..practicaladvantages. js :the light wliioh the'discovery of radio-activity, has shed .'• upon the . ultimate, constitu-. tion'of The old.quest of alchemy has, almost by accident, been run to earth, .■ and , (what' is' very . intimately bound iip..;with- this) not only; have.the elementary'bodies been'shown, to.be in-, stable,, but also, the atoms of which .they, are' constituted.,'.lt;is' now.-,known..that the atom, so far from being a final unit, simple, to the.lasj; degree, is ■' a'.complex;i system- of whirling particles, each in' its. definite epurse,- with,a very high velocity,, andbearing a charge of electricity. It is at this point'that the constitution of .the atom becomes the problem 1 "of '.the; transmutation of one. element into ■. another. If some means,'can be found of .pouring, energy .into 'the atom—this little world— as to break up its small planetary; system, then the particles: torn : asunder,; the 'system from ; which -they . .have- ..been: wrenched will be of a different vnatuie'.' In'the radio-active; bodies, the continual! breaking ;up of the atoms with' tbf. casting forth.of .minute particles at an':enormous speed is., observed. 'Hie' electrical properties of the latter (the most delicate means of testing their' character} has. given, the : most. weighty ■ confirmation; to the theory .'of the electrical constitution of matter; •. .-''.. '•' ■ ; '■■ '■•."'. ■■'' '' ,; '. ."The advance of discovery-in the.sphere of radio-activity has been so .rapid that it is almost impossible, to assimilate the facts as theyhave: been' brought to light." But .we' have' said • enough to! show that one need not leave tho.study i of .physical science to find life histories more sensational -than: the,'most' iprolifio imagination : can' produce!"^'■':*■:-iv- V:' v ': : .;-. ;.•:•■• ■