The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-08-27
ALASKA ROCKS
CONTAIN RAO|UM|
French Scientist Now Making
Investigations in That
Territory.

SEATTLE, Aug. 12.-WhiIe natural
ly, the principal exhibit from Alaska
at the Alaska Yukon-Pacifc Exposition
which viii be held at Seattle in 1909
will be the different Colds produced by
the north, there is another far more
valuable element that will also have a
place IN the mineral building.
Radium, according to a leading
Partisan scientist, can be produced in
large quantities from certain of the
rocks of the north, and this savant,
Henri Bertholet, son of a member of
the French Gallery of Forty Immortals,
is now in Alaska arranging for a ship
ment of rock to Paris where it may
be treated under the most favorable
circumstances and its value as ra-
dunn producer ascertained.
Gold is worth about three hundred
dollars a pound. That is, it costs three
hundred dollars to extract a pound of
gold from the earth. Radium is worth
about five million dollars a pound; at
least it is figured it would cost that
sum to extract a pound of radium from
the pitchblende in which it is found.
Of course no one has yet succeeded in
extracting a pound Of radium and the
estimate of its value per pound is more
or less approximate.
Radium, at the present time, is OBJ
tanned only in one portion of the world.
1t is extracted from pitchblende of a
certain kind found only in the Austrian
Empire. 1t required that tons of pitch
blende be treated to produce a few
grains of radium, and this is one of the
reasons for radium s enormous price.
Recently Austria has forbidden the ex-
port of pitchblende in quantity, and
as a result scientists experimenting
with this newest, rarest and most val
liable of the elements, have been at a
loss to know where to get permanent
supply. Now all eyes are directed to
Alaska and Yukon, and great hopes are
held that not only will permanent
supply be obtained from the great white
north, but also that this supply will
be in such form that the cost of produc-
ing radium will be reduced from mil
lions of dollars a pound to thousands or
even hundreds. When aluminium was
first discovered its cost was prohibitive,
the process by which it was produced
costing hundreds of dollars a pound.
But after years of experiments, a pro-
cess was discovered which placed alu-
minum in the market commercially. It
is hoped and believed by leading scien
lists that radium will also be produced
in short time commercially, and that
thereby many of the industrial process
IS of the world today be greatly cheap
sned and simplifed.
Like so many other scientific discov-
cries, the knowledge that radium was
present in the rocks Of the north came
quite by accident. The society for sci |
entifc research, of which Mr.. Berthe
let is a member, received several rocks |
from Alaska for a purpose entirely dis
with radium. One of these |
specimens happened to be laid near a |
plate. When. the plate
was developed there was found on it
the outline of several instruments that
were nearby at the time the rock and
the plate We're in conjunction. This led
to an investigation which revealed the
fact that in all the rock from Alaska
were traces of radium. Hence Henri
Bertholet s trip from Paris to Fair
banks. The exact location of the mine
from whose specimens the radium was
taken Is not, for obvious reasons, an
1t is sufficient to say, accord
ing to Mr.. Bertholet, that the deposits
are of such extent that will avoid the
necessity in future of science calling on
the unwilling pitchblende deposits of
the Austrian government.
"What will radium do?" repeated
Mr.. Bertholet. "Why, so great are its
possibilities that the average newspa-
per and magazine articles, usually so
do not tell half it's won
ders when dwelling upon it. Had l
a pound of radium here and a row boat,
could repel the whole united attack
of any hostile feet attacking Seattle.
The prospect of cheaper radium means
more to the scientific world, and ulti-
mately to the industrial world, than
can be realized at present. I have great
hope of the prospects of the trip l am
taking to Alaska. 1t may mean great
things too for the north, for the cheap
production of radium will furnish en-
ployment ultimately for-well, 1 do not
care to prophesy how many men, but
the number will be greater than most
people not familiar with the new eIe-
ment 5 possibilities can imagine
c. H. Z. ASQUITH.