DEMAND FOR RADIUM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1940, Page 9

DEMAND FOR RADIUM

USE OF LUMINOUS PAINT IN AIRCRAFT. Swift developments in aviation are establishing a fast-expanding demand for radium. The larger number of luminous dials on aircraft is responsible for the increased use of the metal and war requirements may bring a substantial rise in price, according io Prof. Samuel C. Lind, Dean of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. “During the World War there was a maximum of eight dials on the panel board of an airship,” he said recently. “Now the average small plane has 12 to 15 luminous dials. Larger craft with three sets of controls will have from GO to 75 luminous instruments. Also, Army and Navy specifications now require a higher grade material than previously used, which means more radium per gram of paint.” Fortunately it docs not seem likely that the supply of radium will diminish in the near future. These seems no reason to think, he said, that expansion of the Canadian industry could not be made to meet the demands of the United States and England. Meanwhile, the luminous paint industry as a whole does not appear to be growing. Use of luminous paint in the watch and clock industry has levelled off or is diminishing.