Madame Curie

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 69, 8 April 1937, Page 13

Madame Curie

Was World's Foremost Woman Scientist

"jtihe foremost woman lnvestlgator." That ls how Lord Rutherford described Marie Curle when she passed away a few years ago (says a writer ln the Melbourne Age). Her outlook upon life and duty , shone out ln her declaration: "Radiuih ls not to enrlch any one. It ls an element; it is for all people." If any authoitfty. had the right to ptonounde dogmatiOaily on the subject she had eafned it by a ftfetime devoted to sclentiflc sthcjy and. made glorious by seif-denial ana self-sacriflce, The story as told by herself is* record of triumphs ftrst -at' hej- husband's side as a skjlle'd collaborator, and afterwards as hls successor in his chair at the University of Paris. - She was of Polish orlgln, and her maiden name was Marie Sklodowska. She came from a line of small Polish landed proprletors, a grOup frbm which "Poland has drawn her inteilectual recruits." Her father was Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Warsaw, and her mother was director of one of the best Warsa,w schools for yotag glrla. Born ln 1867, Marie was the last of five children. Warsaw, being under Russian rule, - suffered from the oppression exertfed on the schools. The children were compelled to learn the Russian lang'uage almost before they had learned to speak their own. All instruction was given in Russian, and the moral atmosphere was unbearable. One result was the deepening of patrlotism in Polish youths. Marie was fifteen when she flnished her high school studies, and always held flrst place ln her class. At seventeen she left school to take up work as a governess. , K LIVED IN GARRET. TT was in 1891 that she. ai, ln Paris to enter upon the cotirse of study which had been the dream of her life. Living ln a garret, she found the cold of winter so keen, and coals so expenslve, that water would freeze in a basin, and tb be able to sleep she had -to pile all her clothes on the bed covers. In 1894 she met Pierre Curie, already a well-known physiclst, and the marriage took place a year later. They began life in a little apartment of three rooms furnlshed by the patents, and a money gift from a friend enabled them to buy two bicycles. With splendld peralstence she did most of her houaekeeping, and at the same time contlnued her studies. Both she and her husband became specially interested ln Becquerel's experiments on the salts of uranitai. . From that, point they began research with radlo-activity, and in 1898 obtalned, polonlum and radlum, from pltchblende. "The dlscovery and lsolation, of radlum was of outstandlng signlficance, both theoretlcal apd practlcal. Its use in the treatment of cancerous grcwths ls proved in the hospitals of the world." "One morning ln the spring oi 1898 Marie Curie stepped forth from a crude shack on the outskirts of Paris with the greatest secret of the century literally in the pata of her hand. . It was one of the silent, unheralded moments in the world's history." So wrote Mrs. Meloney, O *

who planned for Marie Curie the approprlate gift of a gramme of radlum. It was in 1902 that the existence and character of radlum were deflnitely established. In 1903 she obtalned her doetor's degree, and at the end of the same year the Nobel Prize was awarded Jolntly to Becquerel, her husband, and herself for the dlscovery of radlo-activity and new radio-active elements. In 1906 she lost her husband. He was run over by a dray in Paris, and kllled instantly. She felt unable to face the future, but was InSpired by rememberlng how he used to say that even if deprived of him she ought to continue her work. To her also at this crlsis came the excpptional ofler of her husband's chair in the university'. No woman had ever held such a position. A new precedent had been created. At her installation . a large crowd of celebrities, statesmen, and academicians assembled. FINE FOREHEAD. CUDDENLY through a small slde door entered a woman aU in black, with pale hands and high arched forehead. The magniflcent forehead woa notlcr flrst. It was not mereiy a woman wht stood before us, but a brain and llvini thought. Her appearance was enthusiastlcally applauded for flve minuteg. With trembling lips she began her lecture on the theorles of radlo-activity elnce the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1911 she received for the second time the Nobel Prize, this time alone. Durlng the Great War she was sent by the Government to Bdrdeaux in charge of all the radlum ln her laboratory, and she rendered high service in the field by providlng radlological Installatlons in hospitals and also a. radlological car. In regions distant from the front she took care of many hospitals and vlsited ambulance statlons at scores of centres. Her work was exhaustlve .and , exhaustlng, and did something to shorten tar life. ' AMERICA'S GIFT, TN the year 1921 she was' invited to Amerlca to recelve the gift of a gramme of radlum (£20,000) from the women of that great country. The President made the presentation. lt was on this occasion she said that radlum was not to enrlch anyone, andf she insisted that a deed should be drawn up stipulatlng that in the event of tar death the gift was to become the property of the Paris Radlum Instltutlon for excluslve use ln the Laboratoire Curie. She paid another visit to America ln 1929, and ln tar later years she saw tar work contlnued by • her daughter , Irene, and tar husband. Here was * woman whose brllllant scientlfic attatanents went hand ln hand with a qulet dlgnlfled stapllcity, which impressed all who heard her. She was, in a true sense, a selfless personality. Even durlng the war, when she ran tar own radiological truck from hospital to hospital in the zone of operations, and in constant contact with mud and blood, she washed and dried and pressed her own clothes.