POLONIUM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 746, 19 February 1910, Page 5

POLONIUM.

NOT A COMPETITOR WITH RADIUM.

By Telecrarh—Pre«« Aaaaciatlon—OocTrleht,

London, February 17. ;. .. Professor Sir William Ramsay says that polonium is commercially ■ valueless, -as it .is too in disintegration. It is impossible for:' it to compete with radiiim.

SIR WM. RAMSAY'S RECORD. Professor Sir William Ramsay is ConBJilting Chemist to the British Radium Corporation, and ■ last year reported favourably as regards the : productiveness, for- radio-activity, of certain Cornwall ores. His statement to-day no doubt has reference to tho cabled' statement,'published on Thursday, that Madame Curie in co-operation with' Mon's, do Bierne' had' isolated a small quantity of' polonium„ "which far exceeds radium's radioactive . power.' The Radium "Institute in England, which has the support of the eminent surgeon' Sir Frederick lTevps, was formed to.develop the treats ment of various diseases by means of radium-the success of which ' movement .would place the demand for radio-active snbstanoes on a commercial basis. _Sir, William Rumßay is Professor of, Chemistry ai University College, Lo n _ don,-and.. is aged 57. He has 'distin. guished himself by : researches into the constituents of the air; in conjunction with Lord Rayleigh he discovered argon Besides discovering helium, he has also detected in the air the unknown dements to which ho has given the Greek names of neon, krypton/ and-xenon. He was awarddd tho Nobel prize in chemistry •19M. He. has shown tho transformation ot the; radium emanation into helium neon, and probably 'argon, and tho possible change of copper into lithium and sodium.- .