Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1906-03-27
RADUM NFECTS CIJRRIES
tiounted BY Sort OF a Mineral
FrankenStein.
PERPETUAL LIGHT PLANT
Famous DISCOVERIES of Wonderful
Element So Permeated with It's
Rays They Live in Constant State
or Radistion-Neeessary to Build

Element So Permeated with It's
Rays They Live in Constant State
OF Radistion-Necesss to Build
Another Laboratory.
The celebrated chemists, NJ and
Nine Currie. are suffering from an
embarrassment of too much radium
The famous chemists of Paris, whose
discovery Of this wonderful element
plunged the scientists Of the world
INTO grave doubt as to the soundness
o. the atomic theory, have become
the victims Of this mineral Franken-
stein and, having been driven from
their laboratory. are now likely to be
dri, en- from their home
". Currie and his wife, who had
aided him in every step in his re-
searches. are suffering from what
&ne. Currie chaTacterizes as a ''ra-
diem pest Incidentally they have
Geycloped the fact that with radium in
use in sufficient quantities the extor-
tons of the gas trust would become
a thing of the past and the establish
u.ent of municipal ownership too sim
plc 10 require more than the impreg-
nation OF all parts Of the city with
radium rays.
Thc laboratory of the Curries has
been turned into a perpetual lighting
pant by the abundant use OF metal in
eXperimcnts, and even the room in
which they sleep has become so thor
tGghly imDregnated that it has be-
come necessary to surround the bed
At aight with heavy black curtains OH
the sides and across the top.
There is radium everywhere about
The house and laboratory of the Cur
res and there is but little hope of
relief for many years yet to come, as
tloy have estimated that the power
of the light from the impregnated
walls viii have diminished less than
80 per cent in forty years.
The radium follows the two chem
lists everywhere. There is no way of
getting rid of it; no way of cleaning
the place or their clothes of the mys-
tCrious light that clings to and fol
lows them Every piece-of apparatus,
every article in use about the labora-
tory becomes in time a separate foun-
tain of light, giving off the weird and
setting up a new point of brilliance,
to remain such for decades
In discussing the strange misfor-
tune that has overtaken her husband
and herself, Nine. Currie said today:
''Ve will have to build another la
horarory in our garden. The old one
is SO impregnated with radium as TO
reader ali our apparatus useless
The delicacy of all the old apparatus
was destroyed by the influence of tho
Iadium, and if we put new apparatus
in the radium infected rooms it soon
Ccicriorates.
THE finest electroscopes il is pos
sible to buy work less accurately in
room where radium has been exposed
than the clumsy article consisting Of
a cork, tin foil and the mouthpiece of
an old pipe. My husband and myself
have found it impossible to work ia
a room where radilm has been ex-
posed for any length of time. The
rays infect not only the room. but
tho whole building. 1t has become.
N tact a radium pest. Some of the
apparatus that has been exposed, the
new as we'll as the old, has acquired
the property of throwing off radium
rays and cannot be used.
THE building will have TO be torn
down. for even if every particle of
radium is removed, the rays will keep
on increasing in intensity for two or
three years, and after that, although
losing in intensity, win deteriorate
loss than 50 per cent in so yesVs
What would occur if you exposed
an article continuously to radium rays
for any length of timer" was asked.
1T would continue to give off rays
for a hundred years, at least" was
the answer-New York Journal