MARVELS OF RADIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 59, 3 April 1909, Page 4

MARVELS OF RADIUM.

JULLKIXS OF I'OUXDS' WORTH TL-IRUWX AWAY AS REFUSE. There are fortunes waiting for people who can provide the newly-founded Uoyal liritisli Radium Institute with supplies of the lamous new element, which is worth something like thr.'c thousand Limes its weight in gold. And the most amazing lenturc oi radium is that it eiin be produced from material which up to now has been valueless. ILadium, as is 'now generally known, is extracted from pitcli-blcndc, a mineral from which uranium—a rare metal, of color like that of nickel—is also extracted. Hitherto, however, after tllv uranium liad been extracted from the pitch-blende the residue was tlli'owu away as ealucless. although it is from this residue tlraV radium can be 'extracted. Certainly many tons of pitch blende have to lie handled before a few grains of radium call be iOUlid. As the thousandth part of a grain, however, is worth about CHi. the labor is not without its compensation. RADIUM BEDS AT STEL'XEV.

Until lately one never dreamt that the residues of pitch-blende, after the chemical treatment extracting uranium, contained absolutely the (source of radium, and some years ago the company which owns the mine ill Cornwa'l from which a very large part of the world's supply of pitch-blende comes actually paid Us fid a ton to 'have more than Kill tons of residue carted away and tippeil 011 waste heaps 011 Stepney building land. "I. would gladly," says the secrelary of the company, "give C.iIKIO today to recover that waste pitch-blende. 1 do not know -where it is now, but som e workmen are living over radium bvdk and do not know it." As a matter of fact, there are many other people in Txmdnn living over hidden mines of thus priceless element besides the ivorkmcn of Stepney. A wellknown Oily linn of analytical chemists and metallurgists threw away, 'tor twenty-live years, the by-products obtained' from pitch-blende in the process of cxtracl'r.ig uranium. Hundreds of tons of litis discarded '"refuse" were carted away and used for levelling and laying-out roads and for lilling in the foundations of houses.

ilAUU'il IS IN.DKSTUUCTJBLK. And thirt twvjitv-five years' accumulation of radium must still be in existence, for the element is indestructible. At the dining table.-; of many old families Knglaml. too. there are used wineglasses nnil ornaments in tin; manufacture of which radiuiu, to a certain extent, entered. Always a rather costly kind o'i wave, it will now be appreciated more than ever. The use of uranium for this purpose has long been di>continued in favor of cheaper methods. Although pitch-blend,, exists in lar«e quantities in Cornwall, where cil'ort* will now. be concentrated with a view to increasing the supply of and cheapening radium, it vs in Bohemia where the largest supplies ai'e to be found, and the earliest specimens of radium used in thin country were obtained from Austria. Hut the Austrian (Joverniuent. recognising the scarcity "f the new element, prohibited it* exportation. Last Year three grammes of radium, were produced in the laboratory ot the rnivcrsity of Vienna the greatest quantity yet produced-and this necessitated tiie treatment of tea ton* of pitchblwnile. and they generously lent Sir M'illiam Uunisay half a gramme to experiment within recognition ot the valuable work carried out hy the Kuglish scientist i;i connection with radium. WHAT KADI I'M WILL IX). Some wonderful cures have la-en brought about by the u-e of radium, although the experiments have naturally been Miiin'what limited on account ot its si-arcity. for external growth* vadium is wonderfully etlicacions. Not only can port wine stains and mole* he cleared away bv the use of radium, but also tumors ami ulcers. Sir Frederick 'lreves mentions the ca-v of a girl who had a tumor on her eyelid, in size equal 1o a plum, which was removed by radium.— Tit Bit*.