HELIUM

Hokitika Guardian, 26 May 1931, Page 6

HELIUM

A REMARK ABLE GAS. ADDRESS BY LORD RUTHERFORD. LONDON. March 28. Lord Rutherford, in an address last evening at the Royal Institution on ‘ Helium and its Properties,” described how helium was discovered in 1868, when Jansen and Loekyer noted that the visual spectrum of the sun’s chromosphere showed a bright yellow line of unknown origin. Lockver suggested that these lines were due to an undiscovered element to which he gave the name helium. Following a suggestion by Kir Henry Miers in 1805. Kairisav purchased about one gramme of tht mineral cleveite from a dealei for 6s fid, and proceeded to purify the gases eyolved and to examine their spectra. A number of new lines were observed, and a spectrum tube containing the new gas, temporarily called crvpton by Ramsay, was sent to Sir William Crookes for a detailed study of its spectrum. Crookes reported tersely, “Crypto nis helium. Conm and see it.” AYe now knew that helium was the first of a remarkable group of inert monatomic gases.

PRODUCT OF RADIUM. Tu 1906, Ramsay and Soddy found that helium was produced by the trails formation of radium, and Rutherford showed that the alpha particles which are ejected with great velocity from radioactive atoms were identical with helium nuclei. ft was probable, said Lord Rutherford, that the greatest part, if not all. of the helium found in the earth and in the natural gases escaping from the earth owed its origin to the alpha particles expelled from the radioactive elements during theijn transformation in the earth’s crust. There could hi* no doubt that helium was formed from hydrogen under some ns yet unknown conditions in the stellar system. However, it had not yet been found possible to produce helium from hydrogen, under laboratory conditions. Millikan claimed that the absorbable part of the cosmic rays must be attributed to the radiation emitted in the formation of helium in the depths of space. The alpha partible or helium nucleus had proved of great imp.vtanee in extending our knowledge nf the structure of nuclei, and it was now believed that the nuclei of the heavier elements were composed mainly of alpha particles and electrons. COM MERC 1A L PR OSPECTS. It was in 1914 that Sir Richard Threlfall suggested to the Board of Inventions of the Admiralty that on account of its ligthness ana non-inflam-mability, helium might prove ot great service to balloons and airships. The commercial prospects of the use of helium in airships and for other purposes had led t oa search for rich concentrations of helium. While most natural gases contained less than 1 per cent of helium there had been recently found in Colorado by boring a rich mixture which contained over 7 per cent of helium by volume. A plant had been installed' which dealt with about 600.000 cubic feet of gas a day. This should give an annual production of helium of 12,000,000 cubic (feet. Tt will be possible to find similar rich concentrations on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Canada. A small gas field was found a few years • ago not far from Toronto which had. a content of 0.8 per cent helium. The rights of those wells had been secured for the University of Toronto.