Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1907-09-07
RADIUM IN FAR NORTH.
Alaska May Produce Substance Now
Worth $4,000 a Pound.

While naturally the principal ex-
hibit from Alaska at the Alaska-Yu-
kon-Pacific exposition, which will be
held at Seattle in 1909, will be the
different colds produced by the north
there is another far more valuable
element that may also have a place
IN the mineral building.
Gold is worth about $500 a pound.
That is, it costs about $500 to extract
a pound of gold from the earth. Ra-
dunn is worth about $5,O00,0O a
pound; at least it is figured it would
cost that sun to extract a pound of
radium from the pitchblendes in
which 1t is found, No one has vet
succeeded in extracting a pound of
radium and the estimate of it's value
per pound is more or less approx
mate.
Radium, at the present time, is OBJ
tanned only in one portion of the
world. 1t is extracted from pitch
blende of a certain kind found only
in the Austrian empire. 1t required
that tons Of p~itchblende be treated
to produce a few grains of radium.
and this is one of the reasons for ra-
dium's enormous price. Recently Aus
tria has forbidden the export of pitch
blende in quantity, and as a result
scientists are experimenting with this
newest, rarest and most valuable of
the elements, and are at a loss to
know where to get a permanent sup
ply.
Now all eyes are directed to Alas
ka and Yukon. and great hopes are
held that not only will a permanent
supply be obtained from the great
white north, but also that this sup.
ply will be in such form that tn;
cost of producing radium will be re.
duced from millions of dollars q
pound to thousands or even hun.
dreds. When aluminium was frs
discovered its cost was prohibitive
the process by which it was produced
costing hundreds OF dollars a pound
But after years of experiments :
!, process was discovered which PLACED
aluminium in the markets CONNER
; cially. 1t is hoped and believed b,
} leading scientists that radium will
also be produced in a short time com
mercially and that thereby many o
/ the industrial processes of the worlt
today be greatly cheapened and sim
plifed.
Like so many other scientific dis
= coveries the knowledge that radiur
was present in the rocks of the mort
came quite by accident. The societ
f1r scientific research, of which MI
: Bertholet is a member. received sey
eral rocks from Alaska, for a purpos
entirely disconnected with radiun
o One of these specimens happened {
be laid near a Photographic plate
e When the plate was developed ther
was found on 1t the outline of sewers
G instruments that were nearby at tn
time the rock and the plate we're 1
conjunction. This led to an invest
r cation, which revealed the fact thS
n In all the rock from Alaska wei
traces of radium, Hence Henri Be
e tholet's trip from Paris to Fairbank
The exact location of the mine frol
II whose specimens the radium VIZ
. taken is not, for obvious reasons, al
nounced. 1t is sufficient to say, a
l. cording to Mr.. Bertholet, that the d
n posts are Of such extent that wi
avoid the necessity in future
science calling on the unwilling pitc
blende deposits of the Austrian go
& eminent.
~ aHUn nDnyU NJ DIFtII