The Washington herald., 1911-03-26

Eric NJ. Brereton, an Englishman,
writing from London, tells in an ipter-
esting way of radium, at, present the
most priceless treasure of old mother
earth.
One day last week. writes Mr.. Brere-
ton. I stood in a prosaic city office, a
plain little room high up above Finsbury
Square, and held in the hollow of my
hand $4,000 worth of radium. the most
valuable thing that the earth has ever
given to man. Radium, the healer, the
vital force, Is infinitely more valuable
than gold or precious stones. 1t is worth
800 per milligram and a milligram
as its name implies, is the thousandth
part of a gram, which, in turn, is the
thirtieth part of an ounce.
The radium, tiny, dark-hued crystals,
was inclosed in two little glass bottles, so
small that both could be placed in the
waistcoat pocket and take up less room
than a couple of cigarettes. Yet such is
the force which this mineral can exert
that each of the miniature bottles, hold
ing $500 worth of material, is kept in
casing of lead and asbestos. While radi-
um is, because of its scarcity, so costly,
il is estimated that the life and activity
of this wondrous metal is only half
spent after 17C0 years. Lead as casting
is employed because. that is the only
metal through which the emanations of
radium do not escape.
The glass tubes having been gingerly
replaced, we stepped into another room
hard by, and here. placed anyhow upon
a kind of sideboard, were a number of
irregular shaped pieces of ore. just
rough Jumps as they had come from the
Cornish mine Of St Ives. They looked
to be worthless. and, indeed, they were
so regarded for many years. yet modern
science has proved that these slabs of
pitchblende contain radium.
Looked Like Rubbish.
The clumsy looking Jumps of ore as
they lay in the corner of that city board
room suggested nothing but rubbish out
of place, but learned that the collection
is worth fully $4,000. and that the chunks
of pitchblende are so exceptionally fine
that they will not be sent to the crush
ing mill unless absolute necessity of
supply demands it.
One of the blocks bears the mark of
the old-fashioned powder charge former
ly used in the Cornish tin and copper
mines for blasting purposes. The men of
St Ives for countless years had regarded
as mere useless waste, and
the irony of 1t Is that they cast aside
the ''stulr' on heaps of rubbish and
sought to make living by extracting
tin from the bowels of the earth. 1t
was so poor a return for their labor
that the Rose Wall Hill mine produced
less than twenty tons of tin a month,
and the workings were closed in ISL
because the owners did not think it
worth while to purchase a new plant.
Nothing was done until 1Si1, when a
feeble effort ended in failure.
Time after time various mines in Corn
wall were closed, and all the while for
tunes in pitchblende were lying hidden
N heaps of waste" on the surface and
N the workings far below. Then came
British and German scientists, who,
seeking for further supplies of radium,
The newly found force of nature, were
directed by their knowledge to examine
the mines of the Cornish Riviera. Sue
cess rewarded them. In such waste
heap as are seen at the Trenwith mine,
was discovered, and supplies
we're also found below in the old work.
ngs. That was in September, 1905, and