The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-06-26
A MIRACULOUS METAL.

the newest and most costly metal in
the world. radium, discovered in 1898
by Prof. and Nine. Curie. This metal
is as yet too new for the standard books
of reference 1t is defined in the sup
plement of the International Dictionary
(1900) as "a supposed radioactive
element that emits rays similar to Be-
querel rays found in pitchblende," :"
with this addendum: "Its existence as
q distinct substance has not yet been
established" However doubtful in
1900, it is probably sufficiently estab-
lished now, for the Paris correspondent
of the New York Tribune states that
after six years of brilliant experiments,
the Curies have at last succeeded "in
extracting from ton of the pitch
blende mineral of Joachinistal, in Bo-
hemia, two decigrams of radium. The
operation cost over $4,000, which is at
the rate of $4,000 gram, or 81 ,000,-
900 kilogram.' As a kilogram is
about % pounds, the value of the
radium might be roughly called $5,-
O0O, 900 pound.
To borrow the definition of Sir Will
liam Crookes, radium possesses the
"extraordinary property OF continu-
ously emitting heat without combus-
tion, without chemical change of any
kind and without any change IN its
molecular structure, which remains
spectroscopically Identical after many
months of continuous emission of heat"
Radium salt emits, without any per-
ceptible diminution of its own quail
ties, sufficient heat to melt more than
its own weight of ice every hour.
Radium emits rays of its own which
have the qualities of X-rays and Of
catholic rays, and is as active in vacu-
um as in air. Uranium and thorium
throw off analogous rays, but of an in
tensity a millionfold less than the
radium rays. The rays or emanations
from radium penetrate through certain
Opaque bodies and make impressions
on sensitive films in closed wooden
boxes. For instance, if coin or
key or other object be placed IN
leather purse and the purse put in the
dark on a sensitive plate, and a little
radium be placed near at hand, it will
be found that the development of the
plate will produce photographs Of the
coin or key, just as is the case with
the Roentgen rays. The radiations of
radium react chemically upon certain
bodies; for instance, they transform
oxygen into ozone, and they change
the colors of glass or porcelain to dark
violet or brown.
Another extraordinary property Of
radium is to throw off rays not only
of heat, but of light like those of the
glow-worm or FREELY. Indeed the light
rays of radium are so powerful that it
has been suggested by French scien-
lists that in this mysterious metal
may some day be found a means of
lighting cities without loss of energy
or waste of force. The rays of radium
dash and explode like minute artillery
projectiles upon sensitive surfaces, and
their phosphorescent properties are
astounding. The most puzzling prop
erty of radium is that, as far as has
yet been ascertained, its properties OF
emitting heat and light are inexhausti-
BILE. The great mystery is how an3
where the ambient forces needed to
produce heat and light ale absorbed
by radium. According to the laws of
conservation and correlation of forces,
heat, light and motion are convertible,
and neither Prof nor Nine. Curie, nor
Sir. William Crookes, nor any of the
scientists of France, England or Ger
many who have followed in Prof.
Curie's footsteps, have yet been able
to prove that the incessant continuity
in the emission of rays of light and
heat from radium causes any exhaus-
ton, expenditure or dminutioa of the
properties so mysteriously stored in
apparently infinite quantities in this
extraordinary metal.
Radium, moreover, has startling
effects upon the nervous centers of
human beings and living animals. A
glass tube containing one or two milli-
grams of radium when carried in the
waistcoat pocket causes a painful
wound in the flesh that will require
six months to heal. A glass tube con-
tanning a few mill;grams of radium
when introduced beneath the skin of
mouse near the vertebral column pro-
duced death by paralysis in three
hours. Tubes of radium placed in
contact with the back of the necks of
Ouinoo niro kill or nor,l,-,o +lo ,,,;