Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-27
CHEMISTRY is DEFIED
ALCHEMIST'S DREAM REALIZED,
SAYS DIR. RAMSAY.
Gaseous Emanation From Radium,
Transmitted Into Helium, Proves
Elements Are Not Constant.

A special cablegram from London TO the
, New York Herald, dated this morning,
says: What may prove an epoch-m king
discovery in the field of chemical research
is announced by Sir William Ramsay with
regard to that mysterious substance, ra-
dunn, which for two years past has been.
puzzling men of science. Sir William Ram
say, whose name is associated with that of
Lord Rayleigh in the study of argon and
helium stated at a meeting of the London
Institution last night that he had observed
and definitely ascertained that radiun gives
off heavy gas, which slowly changes into
helium and then vanishes.
The Importance of this discovery, which
has been suspected by scientists for some
months past, lies, according to the Daily
Mail, in the fact that 1t appears to revolu-
tionize all old theories about chemistry.
Hitherto chemistry has been based on the
theory that elements are constant and that
one cannot change into another; but now
it is seen that radium, of its own accord
and without external interference, turns
into totally different element.
The Scientists Reward.
In his lecture Sir William Ramsay de-
scribed how, after a long search into the
problem of what becomes of the minute
particles with which radium is always part
ing, he was quite lately rewarded. Besides
its other manifestations radium constantly
gives off emanation which seems to be-
have in all respects like heavy gas. 1t
can be collected in tiny TASKS. measured
and weighed and used to display the char
acteristic properties of radium, but IL is not
permanent. In about a month it entirely
disappears. What becomes of it?
Sir William Ramsay has caught this
emanation in the act of vanishing. He
found that after it had been collected for
a couple of days it's spectrum, which pre-
viously was entirely unlike any yet studied,
began to display the typical yellow line of
helium gas, first known and christened by
its constant presence in the sun. In four or
five days the helium lines grew brighter,
and in another week the spectrum of helium
was positively blazing in the Theoretically
sealed tubes that had been filled with the
pure emanations or gaseous output of
radium In other words. one element had
of quite different nature under the eyes
of the experimental.
Alchemist's Dream Fact.
What is this?" asked Sir William Ram
say. but an actual case of that transmu-
tation of one element into another in which
the ancient alchemists believed when they
painfully sought to change lead into gold
and incidentally founded the modern sci
ence of chemistry
Ramsays great discovery, the Daily Mall
says.
''It is as though gold were to change into
iron of its own accord and completely upset
the laws of the old chemistry. No wonder
that with this amazing fact before them
scientists are hopeful of reading the riddle
of the universe. They are now inclining
more and more to the belief that all things
are electricity in different form and In
varying combinations, and that in this mys
ferrous force, which we use every day, but
the solution of the great problem which has
tasked mankind for centuries"