The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-22

| Identical except In the matter Of veloci
ties, may not the soul be sentiment cleo
tron radiated from the body of death
Many scientists look upon the electrOn
of radium as The very substance of cleo
tricity itself, If not of the very vita
principle of life.
| Sir William Crookes, the eminent Eng
lish scientist, says of radium that single
| gram Of electrons contains SUFFICIENT en-
ergy to blow the navies of England ane
France to the top of Ben Nevis.
| When it is considered that one small
| crystal of pure radium the size Of pin
head hurls into the universe decilliont
of electrons a day, what an amazing ex'
hibition of uncontrolled power is placed
| before our minds.
| In few pounds OF the substance there
| may we'll be stored the titan energy OF the
| new solar systems, the reverberatinG
| thunder of worlds hurled from their or
| bits, the clash Of embarrassed stars, the
uproar Of a ruined universe.
Science long ago demonstrated the fact
that no two molecules in any organic
body actually touch each other. There is
cohesion, bat no contact. It is through
electrons dash freely as the stars shine
and the sunshine filters through the In
ter-stellar spaces between the huge mole
cules of the universe.
The relative power Of radium to the
X-ray is as six to one. The rays OF
radium have 100000 times the energy OF
radium and over one hundred times the
energy of barium radiations.
The ratio activity OF polonium and &C
tininum is also much smaller.
The scarcity Of the mineral may be
realized when it is known that there IS
less radium in pitchblende than gold in
sea water.
Placed in contact with barium on thor
Junior indeed almost any substance
Iadium will gradually impart to the
reighboring substance its own radio-ac-
tive properties
Wonderful also is the fact that the
radium will lose its own life in giving
that with which it is brought into con-
tact.
This loss of life is only temporary. II
the two substances be separated for
time it will be found that the barium will
gradually lose the radioactive properties
impaired to it by radium. while the "a
dunn renews from some mysterious
source its former marvellous powers. This
series of operations may be repeated any
number of times with the same result.
Herein is a mstery which physical re-
search is as yet unable to fathom.
Prince Krapotkin, the Polish scientist,
holds that the molecules Of which all
bodies are composed are not something
rigid. They live; that is. an atom or
'corpuscle" is continually being detached
from this or that molecule. and it wan
ders through the gas. the liquid. or even
through the solid; another atom tor cor
puscle) may next take its place in the
broken molecule and so a continued ex-
change of matter takes place within the
dering ''corpuscles' alwas carrying with
them the sort of motion which may be
called an electrical change. Those atoms
or corpuscles which escape from the sur
face of the body would give what are now
called Bacquerel rays, and it would not
be a simple coincidence that those two
elements which possess the greatest atom
ic weights. and consequently have the
most complex molecules, possess also the
highest radio-activity.
In solutions the so-called unstable COM
pounds play an immense part; they are
continually broken up. losing part of their
atoms. and are continually reconstructed
as they take in new atoms. In living
matter the most compound molecules
those of albumen-are those which are
ell
life consists in continual splitting up
and rebuilding of these molecules. Are
not the Becquerel radiations revealing to
us that continual splitting and rebuilding
of molecules which constitutes the life
of both inorganic and organic matter?
These are the grave questions which ma
tural philosophers are brought to ask
themselves and which will certainly re-
quire patient research.
Prof George G. Pegram. of Columbia,
says: THE real discovery of the persist
ent radiations from the uranium COM
pounds was made by NJ Henri Bee
querel in 1896. 1t had ben statd by NJ.
Niewenglowski that under the action of
sunlight certain phosphorescent salts emit
radiations which can penetrate black pep
per. In testing whether this applies to
uranium salts. NJ. Becquerel discovered,
to his surprise, that with uranium salts
exposure to sunlight is unnecessary; ura-
MUM compounds are all the time giving
off radiations which can pass through
Opaque bodies and affect a Photographic
plate on the other side
1t is very interesting fact that when
freshly prepared the radium salts are
family self-luminous. and this property
seems TO be retained as long as the salt
does not absorb moisture. 1t is this
property that has excited much of the
popular interest in the radium salts for
it is a case of the longed-for light with
in heat In fact. ii is light with no ap-
parent source of energy whatever. II
radium chloride ever becomes cheap we
may be given the opportunity to court
fortune by investing in preferred stock
of some international Radium Illuminat-
ing Company Just at present gold is
dirt cheap in comparison with those IA
dunn salts
OVERRIDING BIG SHIP BUSINESS.
Is IL possible that in our eagerness to
have the biggest. We are making some
things too big? The Japan Mail. a Yoko-