Bisbee daily review., 1904-03-09

SUSV py Gcc mcuCfCcp FScS0o, Odt.
 Probably the rarest specimen, and
 possibly the most valuable, contained
 in any collection in the city is a piece |of radium-bearing ore now in the pos
 session of George F. Roberts. of the
 Anchor" sample rooms. The ore
 was brought here recently from Cali
 fornia by Lee Menefee. whose resi- dence is at Fresno. that state To those who have not seen mineral con taining this newly discovered and wonderful substance, and who are especially interested in what its sue |cessful extraction will mean to the scientific world, an inspection of the lcabinet of Mir. Roberts will be of in Iterest and profit.
 No particular beauty attaches to the mineral from which radium may be Iextracted. It is a grayish looking mineral, and of a dead color, being iquite soft. A peculiarly of the min Ieral is that it throws forth sparks when the surface is passed over with Ia keen edged piece of steel, causing an effect similar to that created by rub ping the hand over a cats glossy coat while in dark room.
 MT Menefee, who brought the speci- men to this city, says that there is considerable of the mineral in the mountains of California, and that Professor Booth, of Berkeley college. which is the state university of Cali ,fornia, is now engaged in a study of how to perfect a process for extract ling the radium from the ere He is mot the only scientific man who is spending a great deal of effort in this direction, as this work has been en- tagging the attention of scientists all lover the world since the substance was first discovered, no process hay ling as yet, however, been perfected for securing the radium from mineral in which it is contained.
 There are several varieties of min, ,eral which carry radium, but the great problem is how to extract the valuable substance. It is said that in Utah
 mineral which carries considerable radium has been discovered, and that
 recently large shipment of the ore
 has been made to a radium plant at
 Niagara Falls, New York. The ship
 ment consisted of twenty tons Of ore
 uranium, barium and the
 cr.1 --fo i<-l,
 salts. It is claimed that the Utah ore
 is richest in these minerals of any
 found in the world, and that the own
 CTS of the claims will soon engage in very extensive development on the
 property.
 It is said that if any ore should con
 tain as much as one-fiftieth of 1 per
 cent of radium, the mineral would be
 worth s220, ,GoD per ton, the substance
 being worth $6,000. 900 per pound But,
 interesting a.s radium is, scientifically,
 it is at present but chemical curio,
 and seems likely to remain such for a good many years.
 The tremendous price which is asked
 for radium at present will probably be
 lessened considerably in the future. So far, however, it is an unfavorable circumstance that this wonderful ele- 'ment is only obtained from the ura- lnium ores of Bohemia, and the asser- Ition that the price is artifcially Iscrewed up by the producers Is per haps only true to a limited degree. Professor Himstedt. of the University of Frieburg, has continued investiga- Itions as to the existence of radium in noture, and has extended those for meriy made of rain water and of the soil with reference to the presence of |radium. He has arrived at the con |clusion that radium occurs more ire 1quently in our surroundings than has heretofore been suspected. Accord ling to his experiments, all natural springs of water and also the petro- leum wells possess a heavy gas, whose radiations are similar to. and proba- lbly identical with, radium.