Radium

Manawatu Herald, 15 August 1903, Page 2

Radium

Advancement in • Scientific'discoveries appears to go on with increased eagerness' and rapidity "tMotiighout the civilized world. One of the most marvellous discoveries of .meant, date is that substance called Radium. In a recent number of a Home paper we read that this wonderful metal or element is obtained from pitchblende —an ore found in Saxony. Radium is kept in a small glass tube—-tiny specks of a yellowish substance resembling grains of cork. The mysterious forces exercised by the metal

dra apparent in the glass of the tube, which; under never-ceasing bombardment cff rays.emitted by the radium, i\a/Winder puzzle to scientists. THS effect produced by these rays on a fldudrescent / screpn in a darkened roomia likened toihe-heavens on a bright frosty night. The specks of light -dart about like countless meteors. They never cease ; and never have ceased since the world began and yet—and here is the' greatest wonder of all——despite the continuous heat given off by radium and its constant activityis np rent diminution of its substance. It has been computed that a piece of radium loses one grain from every square inch of its surface in about 10 million years.