THE VALUE OF RADIUM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 13 July 1929, Page 2

THE VALUE OF RADIUM

CONTINUOUS'RUNNING ENGINE “It may he wondered why such importance should be attached to tho emanation from radium element when the most scrupulous cave is taken to screen off its peculiar rays, which consist of atomic particles or electrons, leaving only the gamma radiation, which so closely resembles well-screened hard X-rays that little if, any difference has been, detected between the action of the one and the other,” says the “Lancet.” “Why pay millions for extracting a few grammes of radium from tons' of foreign ore when their effect can be closely simulated by electric means when the high-tension apparatus has been brought to the necessary pitch of perfection? The reply is a simple one. Tho shorter the wave- tiie greater the penetrating power. The gamma rays from radium haVe about a quarter the wavelength of the- hardest rays yet produced, and the apparatus designed to produce the latter is not only .very costly but undergoes rapid deterioration in use. To bring this artificial radiation up to the potency of the gamma radiation from radium would, require apparatus which, if it were not beyond the wit of the electro-technician to make, would in- the course of a few years cost at least as much in upkeep and replacement as the corresponding amount of radium element. For, incredible as- it may appear to anyone except the hardened physicist, radium element can be employed for years without sensible loss. In 20 years the deterioration is only 0,7 per cent.; radium is, in fact, an engine running continuously without working costs.”