Arizona republican., 1902-09-11

of the age pertains to that new meta! | CT substance which contains in itself | such an infinite energy that since the | very beginning of creation it has been | emitting streams of material particles projected with the velocity of from CO.,, UO0 to .'J,0J0 miles per second. The total ! mass of this material thus far collect 1 ed weighs only about one-thirtieth of an ounce. So rare is the substance that to produce one ounce, it is esti- mated, would require an expenditure Of more than $300,000. The name given this possessor of these startling quail ties is radium. It should have been a word, which the language does not seem to hold, indicating an energy vastly beyond the fiery discharge at the mouth of a ten-inch gun. Even such a word would not fully indicate this stored energy.
 Whence comes this supply of power, given off at rate which one may but teebly comprehend-a supply which re- mains ever Or undiminished store? Mans most fabulous conception of genii and their power becomes insigni- ticant before this particle of metal weighing less than one thirtieth of an ounce. Aladdin's lamp is scarcely more than a brass household utensil in com ! parison. Each of these indescribable units eternally projected from this gram of radium is in itself but part Of an atom of matter divided into such ! infinitely minute corpuscles that they partake not of the properties of par : ticular elements but of matter in gen. eral How wild would have been the dreams of an imagination which in o1 1ax hay thing equal to the magical properties , possessed by these particles of radiuml | Science, with all the resources of it's entrance upon the twentieth century, is at loss to understand either the deri-
 vation or preservation of this energy. l Whence comes it's original storage of power? Impossible to believe that so
 minute a body can possess an eveTlast- | ing energy, the question arises, what Il Tenews this immense reservoir of power ! which is being eternally thrown out, yet with the store never dissipated? l Mme. CuTie, 70 whose efforts and these of her husband we owe the gath efing together of tbe minute store of 1adium which science possesses, hints that there may be ar energy traversing all space so subtle that the human
 mind has not yet begun to grasp the salient points connected with its laws. | Field for endless speculation! Is it that We are only on the eve of reaching
 those first truths in the great magic of
 the universe which will awaken the mind from the burrows in which it has
 travelled and carry it toward some law
 of laws?
 The first grain of radium is said to
 have cost more than s1O 900 for the
 pitchbiende from which it was extract
 ed. At this rate, an ounce would b.
 worth some $3OO.oCO and a pound several
 millions of dollars. But so wonder
 tul are it's properties that even at this
 rate the government could well afford inc expense of accumulation. to say
 nothing of MT. Carnegie, AIr. Morgan
 and MT. Rockefeller.
 Certainly the world will not stand
 very long on the threshold of this most marvellous of scientific discoveries. It
 is the history Of metals that demand
 will result in supply. The world will
 be ransacked for ores which will fur
 nish Tadium at it's cheapest. To the
 nrospector and metallurgist working
 not for science but for dollars 20 gold
 ore will prove so profitable as that
 from which radium can be extracted
 
 Though the experiments thus far
 madt have been very limited, a long line e suggestions has been indicated.
 A trifiing particle of radium brought
 into the vicinity of an electroscope re- suits in the discharge of it's electrifi- , cation. The explanation is that the radiant activity is such that the air
 becomes a conductor of electricity suf- ficiently to withdraw the identification of the gold leaves. The ray sent out is apparently a conduetor of electricity
 almost as if it were a copper wire.
 Glass brought into contact with this metal becomes permanently of a brown
 or violet t-tinted hue.
 Oxygen is converted by radiIm into ozone.
 These are but a few of the many curious changes which take place in the 1 presence of what has become known as tho Becquerel ray, in honor Of the profound studies of BecQuerel, through whom the marvellous properties of ra- , dium came to be known to the world Of science.
 These rays are so powerful that not . only do they furnish light, but peue- } trate the most opaque bodies. Still lmore wonderful. they not only pene- trate but seem to impart for a length l of time their powers of radiation to taa substances with which they come in contact. Still more contradictory in } attributes, these radiations seem to possess the double character of the d- t 1cbN All nF Tltln