Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-04-03
About the Marvellous Properties Of
New ChemicaI Metal Radium,
MOST EXPENSIVE SUBSTANCE
single Pound OF IL, II Obtainable,
Would be worth More Than One
Million Dollars.
Special Correspondence.

Special Correspondence.
Boston, March 2S.--some very curious
and interesting photographs--or shad-
owgraphs, as they might better be
called, perhaps-taken recently in the
Photographic department of the Mas
sachusetts Institute of Technology il
lustrate the properties Of the new chem
lcal metal radium-one Of the so-Called
radioactive salts which have recently
startled the scientific world by demon-
strating that an X-ray picture can be
taken without the X-ray apparatus.
This remarkable metal-which takes
the form Of powder ana Is one OF sew
eral similar agents obtained by a series
of delicate chemical operations from
the mineral pitchblend--gives out rays
having many Of the Characteristic prop
critics both OF the cathode and the Y
ray, They pass through substances or
dinarly imperyious to light and the
pictures taken with them are therefore
practically Identical with those taken
by means Of an X-ray machine.
Radium IL the most expensive Of all
known substances, its value being lit
orally many thousand times It's weight
in gold. A single pound Of II, II such
an amount were obtainable, would per-
haps be worth we'll over $1,000 900, In
the few grammes Of powder used in
making the institute pictures, for eX-
ample, there is only about one
per cent of the substance that
actually produces the picture
taking ray, this small guam
tlty being so powerful, however, that
satisfactory negatives can be secured
even with so short an exposure as 10
seconds; and. in the opinion of scient-
.gtp who have been especially engaged
in investigating its curious properties,
its power Is practically ineXhaustible.
We may believe, indeed, that thousands
OF years from now the same sample
OF radium would accomplish the same
result that Il does today, and yet II
would have been emitting its wonderful
rays during every instant of the
thousands Of years.
Taking a picture with redium Is a
much simpler matter than taking one
With an &-ray machine The powder
is kept "a q small box--not unlike the
cases in which the old-fashioned
daguerreotypcs were framed-with an
inner cover Of thin celluloid to hold the
precious substance In place when the
tox is opened and its invisible power
Turned in the direction Of the objec'
TO be photographed. The radium Itself
IS O harmless looking, yellowish powder
that can be seen to glow dlmly when
the eye Of the operator has become ac-
customed TO the surrounding darkness,
but the photographer must work In alb
,oiute darkness, for the seemingly
magic rays, although they have sligi
Illuminating power, act upon a photo
graphic plate much as sunlight does.
The picture making mechanism con-
sists simply Of sensitized plate and
the little box OF radium. the article to
be photographed being placed between
them, either IN direct contact or with
an intervening space of a few inches
40 with the X-ray, the power of ra-
dun varies with It's distance from
the object photographed the nearer
the metal is held TO the object the
clearer is the impression and the short
er the time necessary to secure good re-
suits. The pictures obtained at the in
SlllQIe-WUltll were lNl lthtil lbl IA
perimental purposes but simply TO IL
lustrate the properties Of a new, and
perhaps revolutlonizing, chemical sub
stance-are not identical with X-ray
pictures however for II has been found
that silver, for example, offers less re-
sistance to radium than TO the %-ray.
Whence comes the power Of this dim
glowing powder to penetrate many sub
stances ordinarily opaque TO light Is one
OF the questions that scientists have
yet to answer Various theories have
been propounded in France-where the
OF the radioactive salts were
first discovered, more or less by acci-
dent, like many another scientific phen-
omenon-in Germany, In England and
on this side OF the water, One theory
Is that radium sends out countless rays
OF very short wave length, which are
but little INSTRUCTED py cloth, paper
celulold flesh. and some other sub
stances but cannot pass through such
denser media as metals, wood or bone
with anything like the same rapidly
Another suppOses that Tadium Is con-
tinually throwing off little Invisible bits
of matter, smaller than the atoms
which were so long considered the lin
It of material diyisibility. Indeed, It