Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-12-08
WONDERFUL RADlUM.
Its Possibilities Seem to be Without
Limit.


A London cablegram to the New
York Herald says: What may prove
an epoch-making discovery in the field
of chemical research Is announced by
Sir William Ramsay with regard to
that mysterious substance, radium
which for two years past has been puz-
zling men Of science. Sir william
Ramsay, 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 radium
gives off a 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 revolutionize all old theo-
ries about chemistry. Hitherto chem
istry has been based on the theory
that elements are constant and that
one can not change into another, but
now it Is seen that radium, Of its own
accord and without external interfer-
ence, turns into a totally different ele-
ment.
In his lecture Sir William Ramsay
described how, after a long search
into the problem Of what becomes OF
the minute particles with which rad
ium Is always parting, he was quite
lately rewarded. Besides its other
manifestations radium constantly gives
off an emanation which seems to be-
have in all respects like heavy gas.
It can be collected in tiny TASKS,
measured and weighed and used to dis
play the characteristic properties Of
radium, but it 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 its spectrum,
which previously was entirely unlike
typical yellow line Of helium gas, first
known and christened by its constant
presence in the sun. In four or five
days the helium grows brighter, and
in another week the spectrum Of hell
um was positively blazing in the her
metically sealed tubes that had been
filled with the pure emanations or gas
eous output of radium. In other words,
one element had been literally seen to
change into another of quite differ
ent nature under the eyes Of the ex-
perimenter.
What is this?" asked Sir William
Ramsay, "but an actual case of that
transmutation Of one element into an
other in which the ancient alchemists
believed when they painfully sought
to change lead into gold and incident
ally founded the modern science of
chemistry"
Editorially commenting on Sir Will
liam Ramsay's great discovery, the
Daily Mail says:
1T is as though gold were to change
into iron of it's own accord and COM
pletely upset the laws Of the old chem
istry. No wonder that with this amaz-
ing 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 forms
and in varying combinations, and that
in this mysterious force, which we use
every day, but which We cannot satis-
factorily explain, is the solution Of the
great problem which has tasked man.
kind for centuries"