The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-11
P0L0NlUM MODERN
MIRACLE WORKER.
Blind May he Made 10 See by New
Metal That Radiates Light.
From the New York Herald.

meats by Prof W. Markwen before the
Chemical Congress in that city, is
really the discovery of a woman-one
of the most learned women in that
world and one who is to-day recogrjL-
ed as uTnorG tie truly great pioneers
Of Chtm.stry Married to a French
nan. She is a Pole by birth, and it
was patriotism that led her to give to
her new discovery the name by witch
the world now knows it-PolOnUm.
Scientists as yet understand too lit
tie of the marvellous properties of this
new element to venture more than
vague predictions of what spheres of
future usefulness it may fill; but it
is not improbable that it may be found
to perform the present functions of the
so-called Roentgen or X-rays far more
powerfully and without the somewhat
cumbrous apparatus now essential to
their use.
More Luminous Than Radium.
In much higher degree even than
radium it possesses the property of
shining in the dark, and although it is
known that actual particles. minutes
mally small, are being shot out from 1 t
continually fact which is proved
by magnetic experiments-this strange
substances does not seem to exhaust
itself nor to Use its luminous powers
with the passage of time. Here, there
fore, is a hint. at least, of the future
possibility of a constant and brilliant
illuminant generated without heat or
combustion.
As a result of the discovery of this
brilliant Polish woman, Nine. Curie,
she and her husband and few chosen
associates are enjoying at present a
practical monopoly of a treasure mine
richer far than one of gold or dia-
monds. Polonium is more valuable
than radium. and Prof. Curie himself,
who has a chemically pure specimen of
radium not larger than a buckshot and
weighing less than half grain would
not sell ii for $50 900. Strangely enough,
these precious grains of polinium are
extracted is pitchblende. a sort of by
product found in Austria and hereto
fore regarded as valueless after ii had
been used for the extraction of ura-
MUM.
1t is from the cast off material of a
Bohemian mine opera ted by the Aus
trian government that Nine. Curie and
her husband are now obtaining their
rich store of pOlonium. But as they
were enterprising enough to obtain
control of all of it that was in sight
before others knew its rare possibih-
ties, there is little polonium to be had
even in Europe except through them,
Blind May BE Made to See.
Radium also is the discovery of Nine
Cure. What radium will do, she her
self believes, polonium will do to a far
greater degree. If, as DR.. Lunden, d
German scientist, is reported to have
said in a Berlin cable dispatch yes
terday, he has proved by his expert
ments that rays reflected from radium
enable the blind to see more or less
clearly, then radium and polonium may
yet be destined to work veritable mod
ern miracles.
DIR. Luden says that two Russian
blind dogs, on. whom he has expert
mented, have permanently regained
their sight through the use of these
rays. Startling as that statement
seems, Prof. c.. w. Canolt of Column
bia University said in recent paper
in the Scientific American:
zone of the most striking proper
ties of radium is it's luminosity. The
pure radium chloride emits enough
light to enable one TO distinguish print
ed characters. The rays from radium
excite phosphorescence in many bodies,
such as zinc, sulphide, diamond and
even common salt. The luminosity of
radium is, perhaps, but the phosphor-
escence produced by its own rays. If
a small quantity of rsdium is held
against the forehead while the eyes
are closed one viii see light The rays
penetrate to the retina and cause it
to phosphoresce.
In the same article Prof. Kanalt gives
an interesting account of what led
up to the discoveries of Nine. Curie
and her husband. He says;
History of the Discovery.
I'm 1896 Prof Henri Becquerel, of the
Conservatoire des Aries eft Meters, at
D. Of
uranium. He found that all compounds
of uranium, as well as the metal itself.
continually emit radiatons. which act
upon Photographic plates and have
penetrating power similar to that of
the X-rays. Investigators Immediately
experimental with various materials
with the hope that they might find
other substances having the same
property as uranium.
Prof Currie. of the Ecale de Ply
sique ct de Chimie Industrielles, at
Paris, and Mime. Curie turned their
attention to pitchblende, a mineral
which consists largely of oxides of
uranium. They found that some sam
pies of this mineral from Bohemia pos
sessed a greater activity than either
uranium or thorium, the only sub
stances then known to be radioactive.
This fact led them to the conclusion
that the activity of the pitchblende
must be due to some new element of
great activity. In order to find this new
substance they dissolved a quantity
of pitchblende in acids and separated
the material into portions containing
different elements. They then observed
which of these portions possessed ra-
dio-activity. One portion they believ-
ed to contain a new element, which
they called polonium; another yielded
radium
THE rad1um greatly resembled ba-
rum chemically, and its separation
difficult part of the operation. 1t was
at length accomplished by crystalliza-
tons and fractional precipitations, and
in 1902 Nine. Currie announced the
preparation of pure radium chloride
Il. Demarcoy examined the spectrum
of this material and found that it con-
sisted of lines which were not those
of any previously known element thus
proving quite conclusively that the
radium was actually a new element
According to Prof. Currie, there are
not two pounds of radum in existence
Absolutely pure radium does not exist
as "a metal Only its salts are known.
A frm OF manufacturing chemists in
Paris furnish tiny tubes of radium Of
a lower grade, containing an apprecia-
bic quantity of barium, for $4,000
The amount Of radium contained in
patehblende is so small that IL must
be brought 10 concentration no less
than 5000 times as great before II can
be detected by that exceedingly deli
cafe 81 FuTnauf gnapfpoeaona