RADIUM, REVOLUTIONIZER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 64, 10 April 1909, Page 4

RADIUM, REVOLUTIONIZER.

i telling some of the secrets oe THIS WONDKRFUL MATERIAL, A new industry has started in L'oiu- : wall which may cause Utile less than a ■ revolution. This is the extraction of : radium from a heap of reddish-brown s matter which formerly was regarded as rubbish. Thitf rubbish is the residue of pitchblende after uranium-oxide has been extracted; .pitch-blende looks like curious-lv-streaked pitch, and consist* mainly of uranium-oxide, which is used in staining trlass. The radium forms u minute fraction uf the remaining substance; in fact, about lour grains of radium can be extracted from a tun 01 residue*, bringing the cost to about ;UU a grain, though commercially it is much greater. Austria has prohibited the export of radium 011 account of its rjcarcity, but there appear to be enormous stoivs J.i Cornwall. The -tailings" from the mines which V have hitherto been regarded as useh'ss are now K-ing collected, and new mines will be opened out. iMore than a hundred men are at work in Cornish mine extracting the cnule ma-' terial. The radium, or rather radium chloride, for uio one has ever seen pure radium, U got by a series of chemical processes in the form of very line crystals. It is very insignilicant ♦ looking, resembling common salt. In the dark it glows like rotten fish, but there appears to be "nothing interesting about it. it is a weird substance, which may alter our whole world when we know it better. It is called radium because it constantly gives out wry peculiar rays. The principal rays l to which we are ac--1 customed in everyday life are light rays, and heat rays, but science lias shown us! that there are innumerable other forms of rays to which our nenses are blind. By mean* of the photographic plate we ean see things invisible to our eyes, and radium po>>e-ses the power "«f printing photographs in the dark through , black paper. j Radium exists practically everywhere, especially in deep wells, but in such minute quantities as to be almost beyond the power of recognition. One remarkable fact about radium is that it bus the power o'i making nil objecls near it luminous. In the dark the 1 bands and clothes of a person handling 1 it will glow, while phosphorescent substances will become brilliantly luminous. "When a microscopic, portion is placed against certain materials and greatly •; magnified it ifi seen to bombard a neigh- j boring substance with thousands of flashes of light in a particularly weird , manner.

The wonderful thing about radium is that it is always about 2% degrees Falir. warmer than its surroundings—that is to say, it is continually giving off a slight amount of heat, A peculiarity is that its powers diminish so slowly that it will retain its efficacy for a thousand years. Not only this, but it imparts' its properties to everything with which it is brought in contact. For instance, if a tube of radium be placed in water, the water will issue rays. Nut only this, but so will the vessel, while any object put in tho water will also become charged. Radium has most peculiar effects on the human system. Jt causes horrible sores, which arc diflicult to heal, while it will heal some of tk i most malignant. The man of science who was tile first to experiment with radium was rendered so that the skin peeled oil certain parts of his body, while he became unable to dress without assistance. U will, cause complete bliudness, yet it i> probable that it will enable certain of the blind to see. A long course of exposure to its rays will cause paralysis of the spinal cord, eliding in death, yet it is possible to prolong life indefinitely by its aid, Sonic w'OJider'jui experiments have been conducted 1 in which the lives of certain creature* have been prolonged for over three tiims their natural span. Actually it seems that it will indeiinilely suspend all development. ' j