Evening star., 1914-01-25

government at Joachimsthal, Bohemia,
have been the principal source of pitch
blende. Outside Of that, the only pitch,
bIende deposits of any size in the world
are those in Gilpin county. Colorado.
from which some thirty tons, more or
less, have been procured since the min
eral became valuable as a source OF
radum.
These Colorado pitchblende-bearing
mines have been acquired by Alfred l.
du Pont of Wilmington, Del. who expects
to develop them and to make radium In
the recent discussions of radium in the
country these pitchblende properties
have become confused with the carnotlte
properties. also in Colorado, but hun
dreds of miles away from Gilpin county,
on which the government proposes 10
operate.
Antunite. that other source of radum.
Is exceedingly rare. There is a deposit
in Portugal which probably has fur
nished a few milligrams OF radium 10
commerce, and deposit at mount
Painter, south Australia, from which
several tons of misunderstanding ore have
been shipped.
Quietly Europe for months and years
has been securing carnotite from tne
United States and extracting the
radium from it. AS DR.. Howard heily
of Baltimore has expressed it, we nave
been selling the ores at the price OF IRON
and buying them back at the price OF
diamonds.
=
1t was Prof. Parsons who made TINS
discovery, just as he made the discovery
in the case of the humber fuller's earth.
Carnotite, aside from Colorado ana
Utah, occurs only in the Olray dlstric1
of south Australia. and in low-grade ores
mixed with ilmente as a calcium car
notite under the name of tyuyamyunlte'
in Fershana, Russian Turkestan.
1.-The American carnotite,' says I'rot-
parsons .is the largest source of radium
at the present time. From the most au-
thenttc sources it can be stated dehHleels
that the Australian and Russian deposits
do not compare in extert or richness Will
our own .,. eo,ds in
From the known carnotl.e ;e.ad aeths nat at
Colorado and Utah it is estimated Una. d.
1aast 2OO grams of radium can De eA-
tracted And the worlds visible Supply
of radium now is only seven sIa
Radium is found with uranium nliiei si''I als
oni,- Wherever uranium exists radiulh
:; oiso found in the mineral and Where
thare is no uranium rad1um mas neNel
heen found Uranium ana tneIeIote
dunn are found in carnotte ana us asso E
ciated minerals, and in pitcnpienue III,
notite is a lemon-yelloW mineral ue'
found In nockets of sandstone deposits.
There is a close association pet"eeh
,ran mum and yanadium. Beth are aHlois
those rare metals for which new proc
esses in manufacturing nave credteu a',
Extraordinary demand. Uranium Is useo
=, g1ass manufacturing. 1t colors glass
va,iow and, in sufficient proportion, mn
narts opalescent tints- 1t IS also useu AZ
caramics I, obtain brilliant flreproo1 tii,ts
Of yellov. orange and black: ~ =. ton aA epe
used as an alloy of steel, out Is wv
oensiye for such general use. .,
Vanadium however, is .recosiiiHeo 81
Low in steels where great toushhess ".,u
forsional strength are requireu. 1uei %
automobile parts. gears, p,s.on nan,iseion senr
tubes. boiler plates. tires, transhlss.oii $40 Il
sb.fts gun barrels and the Nke- ne
commercial demand for it IS great. tat-
not;te contains both uranium ana Vaha
dium.
X x
s,,ch mining for carnotite as has been
.o,d,cted in America heretofore has
,sen chiefly for the ostensible purpose of
o,,.r.c+inp the uranium and yanadium
content. Exports of American carnotte
70 Europe presumably were for that pnT-
nose. 1t remained for Prof. Parsons, the
Sherlock Holmes of science. TO olsciose
the fact that the European manufactur'
ers wanted it also for its radium.
"D,,r1ne the year 1912 carnotite ores
carrying 2s.S tons of uranium oxide Were
produced in this country and practically
the entire amount was exported. says
Prof. Parsons. basing his statement on
his own Investigations. From this So
grams of radium chloride. or an equiva-
lent Of 11.43 grams of radium Dromde,
will be obtained. The American ores
were purchased for their radium content.
'It is improbable that all of the ores
exported are now represented by their
finished product, but the 1872 productlon
nf radium from American ores cannot
have been much less, for radium was
being shipped abroad in almost equal
quantities in 1911, and is still being SOLO
for future manufacture 1t prooabiy
can be definitely stated that IN l9l2 there
were obtained from American ores nearly