The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-22
MAKES GOLD
DIRT CHEAP
Treatise on Radium, the Most
Powerful Explosive Known.
TWO POUNDS IN THE WORLD
But Enough to Swing World
From Its Orbit.


Radium, the ne<vest mineral known to
science, is also the rarest and the most
powerful.
1t is worth s., 900 coo a pound.
The total supply of the world is esti-
mated at two pounds
If these two pounds-if gathered to-
gether-there would be stored enough po-
tential energy to swing the world from
its orbit.
1t throws off invisible electrons-or in
finistestinal particles of matter-at the
amazing rate Of 10000 miles a second.
II heats nothing-it destroys nothing.
A plate of radium with a surface an
inch square would shine increasingly for
q million years.
At the end of 5000 years il would have
produced only heat enough TO raise the
temperature of one gram of water one de-
gree centigrade.
The energy from one small crystal of
radium would be sufficient to run all the
steam or electric power of Greater New
York for thousand years.
In the laboratory of physics at Column
bia College Prof. George B. Pegram is
experimenting with the most amazing
mineral Vet OlSCONGIeu Dy
1t is known as radium, and was so
named by its discorerer Nine. Curie, Of
Paris 1t is a mineral salt which pro-
tects electrons through the atmosphere
at the inconceivable velocity Of 10000
miles a second.
These electrons are actual particles of
matter, SO infinitely small that micro
scope with one million times the capacity
OF the most powerful instrument now in
existence could not discover them.
After the most painstaking labor. Nine.
Curie in experimenting with the Bee
Querel rays by means of uranium salts
an intensely radio active substance-dis-
covered the existence of radium, still
finer mineral. wi,n 100000 times the ener-
" of uranium.
Radium is found in proportion of about
one grain to a ton of pitchblende. A
kilogram (about two pounds of this ex-
traordinary substance would cost $1,000
Coo Not more than a kilogram of this
wonderful metal is known to be in exist
ence
All over the world scientists are ex-
perimenting with this new and marvel
lous mineral Sir William Crookes. Lord
Prof. Curie. and in our own country.
Profs Pegram, Pupin and thompson are
delving into the fascinating mystery.
We are apparently upon the eve of some
new and wonderful discovery. which may
even solve the question of life and death.
Prof Pegram's researches are conduct
ed with a quantity of radium that might
easily be heaped on the tip of a woman's
little finger. If half a kilogram were in
e bottle on the professors laboratory ia
bic the experiments would come to sud
den halt because the experimenter would
probably be killed.
At any rate he would be blinded and
burned by the infnitesimal projectiles
fired at him through the glass with
out perceptible diminuition in velocity.
Radium glows with pale blue fire,
which seems emitting no light as they
dash off through space.
Here are some of the astounding things
about radium which Prof. Pegram and
his fellow scientists have discovered or
substantiated:
The flying electrons will whirl through
sheet-iron with no diminution of speed
and photograph an object afterward.
single crystal win give out its steady
blue light for million years without
cessation while continuing to hurl forth
its electrons into space. and to impart to
other substances the property of giving
of light. The electrons will burn your
flesh without the usual sensation OF
flame.
Down in the deepest pitchblende mines,
where particles of radium have been hid
of the world. they are still found shining
with their strange blue light After
aeons of time they continue to hurl their
electrons outward and upward. through
the encasing pitchhiende. through granite
and clay and sod and grass-beyond the
surface of the earth and beyond the
flaming sun.
What amazing artilerest is this who
fires his atomic projections from the Meth
ermost earth and hits star.
over one hundred thousand miles a sec
ond, Think of it. An electrcn OF radium
SO small that no microscope can make
Il visible may loop a viewless loop around
the moon in two seconds.
It may whirl five times around the
world in second.
Suppose you should hold crystal Of
radium in your hand with your face
turned to the east. Suppose that one Of
the electrons We're leaden bullet circling
the earth To its starting point. You would
be shot in the back westward five times
before you could fall TO the ground.
Theelectron would speed across the
Atlantic over Europe. traverse China.
eros sthe Pacific. top the Rocky Noun
tains and pierce your heart in the bat
ting Of an eyelash.
radium olectron set in chase Of a
flying Mauser would pass through it as
though it were standing still.
To the lay mind it would seem that
such tremendous energy would wear it
self away in short order and that the
irconceivable projections would soon be
exhausted.
Such is not the case. here is an Illus
tration Of the constant power of radiuni.
Take. Tor instance. a quantity equal TO
ten crystals Of granulated sugar Let the
small particle lombard the universe with
fits de1illions Of eiectrons for million
years.
The amounted projected into space
would he found to be equal to sixty-five
thousandth part OF a milligram. which
can De compared TO nothing better than
the point OF q needle
AT the same time the decnlions Of cleo
irons comprising body rs large as
needles point have developed energy
sufficient to melt a layer OF ice a quarter
OF a mile thick
What is the nature Of this energyP How
.. IL stored? Is life itself a positive up
building OF electrons and decay mega
dive radiation? Since all electrons are