The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1903-06-10
MARvELS OF RADIUM.
GREATEST PUZZLE WITH WHICH
SCIENCE HAS TO DEAL.

A fresh announcement Just made to
the Academy of Sciences in Paris by
Monsieur Curie, co-discoverer with his
wife of the most extraordinary of all
chemical elements, radium, brings the
wonderful properties of that substance
once more to public attention. Radl-
um, whose existence as an Independent
element was finally demonstrated last
year, presents about the greatest puz-
zle with which science has to deal. II
seems TO violate-although no scien-
tist is prepared to admit that 1t actu-
ally does violate-the fundamental
laws of energy. In a word 1t gives
out energy, increasingly without re-
vealing the source. 1t appears to draw
upon an ineXhaustible supply, and yet
receives nothing in return from with
out. In this respect II seems to realize
the dream, which science has pro-
nounecd impossible, of perpetual mo-
ton.
NJ. Curie's new announcement is to
the effect that piece of radium is con-
unually giving off heat, keeping itself
at temperature of 7-10 degrees Fab
renheit above its surroundings. This
is sufficient to enable 1t to melt its own
weight in fee in less than an hour and
to keep on melting ice at the same rate
indefinitely.
IL radium were an abundanC sub
stance, think of the consequences of
this strange property! But unfortu-
nately-or. perhaps, fortunately-radi.
um is one of the rarest things upon
the earth. 1t is never found in the
pure state. 1t must be dissociated
from the other substances with which
it is combined. by long, tedious and
costly chemical operations. II is OBJ
tanned from mineral called pitch
blende, found in Bohemia, and during
the two or three years that have
elapsed since its discovery by Nine.
and NJ. Curie of Paris they have sue
ceeded in separating out of tons and
tons of pitchblende less than two
pounds of radium. That is all that ex-
lists, uncombined, in the world, and
even that is not the pure thing. II Is
mingled with more or less barium.
The Curies do possess, however, one
tiny bit OF chemically pure radium. 1t
weighs about half a grain, and is said
to be of the size of a buckshot. NJ.
Curie has declared that he would not
sell it for 100000 francs. If he and his
wife have a monopoly of this precious
Substance they are not getting rich out
Of II. The demand is not active. Half
grain of impure radium in little
tube is offered in Paris for $4,000.
A thief who should run off with a
bit OF radium as big as small dia-
mond would find that he had caught
Tartar. If he kept it in his pocket, it
would produce an inflammation that
might cost him his life. If he held 1t
near his eyes, he could easily lose his
sight. If he handled it much, his fin
gers would get sore, and might have
TO be amputated. NJ. Curie is quoted
as saying that he would not venture
into room containing kilogram of
pure radium; for, If he did, he would
probably lose his skin, his eyesight
and his life!
tie more the properties of radium. We
have noted NJ. Curie's recent announce
ment about its giving off heat. 1t
gives off light also. Pure radium
shines in the dark. although 1t is not
hot like a flame. But, most wonderful
OF all, it constantly projects into space
around it streams of invisible corpus
cles, smaller than atoms, with veloci-
ty as great as a hundred thousand
miles per second!
1t is this marvellous and ceaseless
bombardment of its surroundings that
makes radium so dangerous to handle.
The infinitely minute particles can
not, of course, be seen. but they affect
Photographic plates, and it was in that
manner that the existence of these in
explicable radiating streams was first
demonstrated.
Radium is omnivorous in its appe-
tite for obscure and mysterious prop
critics. Not content with its penetrat-
ing streams of pulverized atoms, 1t
gives off, at the same time. at least
two other, different, kinds of rays. One
of these resembles the ordinary X
rays from Crookes tube, the other
consists of something that is easily
stopped or absorbed by interposed OBJ
stacles. But even these absorbable
rays have the tremendous velocity of
$4,000 or 10000 miles per second.
NJ. Curie's buckshot of pure radium
is, in some respects, miniature of
the sun, 1t draws no light, no heat, no
energy, from surrounding space, but it
radiates them generally and continu-
ously upon everything about 1t. Helm
holtz solved that riddle for us many
years ago. The sun is no perpetual
motion machine. and 1t violates no law
known to science. By the gradual,
and TO us imperceptible, shrinking of
its gigantic bulk it generates the en-
ergy that 1t gives off. A somewhat
similar explanation has been offered to
account for the mysterious energy of
radium. Messrs. Rutherford and Nc
Clung of the McGill university, suggest
that 1t is the breaking down of the
atoms into the smaller corpuscles that