The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-31
TURNS COPPER INTO LlTHIUM.
Sir William Ramsay Makes Announce
 nent of Great Interest.

London Cable in(New York Times
 Sir William Ramsay has promised to communicate shortly to the Chemical so- ciety an account Of a discovery which, in the words of so conservative a sci- entiho publication as the Lancet, In It's number issued today, marks an epoch in the history of chemical science, since his Investigations have shown that a given element under the powerful action of radlum emanations undergoes degra- dation into another. Tn short" adds the Lancet, the transmutation of clements us again of the extraordinary presence
 Reversing the process sought by the ancient alchemists, who believed that there was substance by means of which the baser mtals could be transmitted into the higher, Sir William has effected tho degradation of metals by means of gas evolved from radium.
 Sar William in an interview today sald
 1T am engaged in writing the results of my research work, which will be published at the end of August
 The paper will prove that Sir William has effected the transmutation of copper From his experiments Sir William makes the following remarkable deductionss
 From it's activity 1t is probable that the radium emanation belongs to the he- Hum series of elements During its spon- taneous change it parts with 8 relatively enormous amount of energy The di- rection In which that energy Is expended may be modified by circumstances. If the emanation Is alone or In contact with hydrogen and oxygen bases, a portion is decomposed or disintegrated by the energy given off by the rest. The gaseous .l.a . z. Hum. If however, the distrlbutlon of energy Is modified by the presence of water, that portion of the emanation which Is decomposed yields none; if in the presence of copper sulphate, argon. Similarly, copper acted upon by the ema nation Is degraded to the first member of It's group, namely .lithium.
 Tt is impossible to prove that sodium or potassium is formed, seeing that they are constituents of the glass vessel In which the solution is contaGled but from analogy in the decomposition of the pro ducts of emanation they may also be products of the degradation of copper
 Commenting on Sir Williams exper- ments, the Lancet coptinues:
 For aught we know to the contrary, the time may ultimately come in the couse of ages when the metallurgy of the world will be degraded to the alkaline metals. It would appear. therefore, that the noble metals are slowly breaking down, and that gold platinum, uranium and other clements of high atomic weight will disappear and their descendants be the commonplace elements. This would seem to teach that gold and other metals exhibiting high atomic weights have, after all. a complex, unstable constitu- tion. the tendency of which Is to resolve into simpler substances
 These remarkable discoveries remind Gs again of the extraordinary presence of the ancients and of the presentiments of the alchemists. who evidently had some sort of conviction that after all there Is primary matter from which all other elements are formed by various conden- .sations. He is a bold man who now adays confesses skepticism about any thing. The world has seen men who have said. It is impossible and generations who succeeded them who have seen the impossible come to pass"