The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1917-01-19
POWER OF RADIUM
1t May Be the Force Destined to
Destroy the World.
TO DIE IN A BURST OF FLAME

MS WonoerTui ELEMENT IL Is Claimed,
Will First Emancipate Man and Then
Later on Put an End to Him and All
His Works In Sea of Fire.
Ii We place a thermometer into
phial containing a minute quantity of
radium bromide it viii indicate a tenn.
perature 81 degrees hotter than the
temperature outside Of the phial
What the temperature would be if we
substituted radium for radium bromide
we have no means of knowing, for sci
ence has not as yet produced pure ra-
dunn, although the lay world prefers
TO think so. Our closest approach to
radium so far has been radium bro
mide. which If pure consists roughly of
three-ffths by weight Of the element
radium and two-fifths of the element
bromine.
Turning back to our thermometer. we
also make the discovery that the heat
radiated from our speck of radium
bromide does not grow less as the DAYS
and months-nay, years and centuries
roll by The mysterious element CON
tinues to furnish prodigious amounts of
energy, with never a let up or at least
not until it has worked" for $500
years, this being the present calculated
age of radium.
La order to better comprehend what
this means let us compare il with coal.
This is what we find
According to Professor Soddy. q
gram Of pure radium evolves 1873 calo-
ries Of heat an hour. In one year
lS160 hours the same gram Of radium
evolves 1,lG0O0o calories In $500
years the lenath of time radium viii
evolve energy 2.G00,000G00 calories
viii be developed Now, one gram of
coal when burned evolves 2200 net
calories of heat Consequently the en-.
ergy developed by radium is more than
million times that furnished from the
combustion of coal
Commercial radium salts are at pres
ent obtained By working the Austrian
pitchblcnde and lately from the .Ameri-
can carnotite found in Colorado These
are practically the only commercial
sources known today.
But radium is by no means as scarce
as most people believe Radium ema-
nations have been found In springs. in
the air, in rocks. etc. aud this has
given rise 10 an eNtracrdinaIy theory
regarding the evolution Of tile worlds.
When the famous SWiSs-italian Sim
plon tunnel was constructed some wears
ago totally unforeseen circumstances
arose Which made the work most diff
cult. Although this tunnel is far above
sea level, the heat became uncomfortable
as the work progressed Artificial cool
ing had to be resorted 10 In order to al
low the workmen to proceed with their
work. Professor Jolly then made the
astounding discovery that the rocks of
the Simplon contained radium, which
accounted for the unexpected high tenn
perature within the mountain
From this Jolly has built up a new
theory of evolution and. while revolu
tionary in the extreme, it is most plau-
stble and gains more adherents each
year
Lord Kelvin already deduced that If
the earth contained only two parts of
radium per million million-and a great
deal more is actually found In the
rocks and crust of our globe-this min
ute quantity would raise the tempera-
ture Of the earth's core 1900 degrees
G. in 100,0O0.O00 years. There being no
escape for the imprisoned heat-the
earth's crust being an exceedingly bad
heat onductor-Professor Jolly con-
vinces us that as the ages roll by the
interior of the earth must become hot
ter and hotter Finally after the end
of millions OF millions of years the
crust must give way TO this tremen-
dous heat from within and the burst
ing earth must go up in flames, becom-
ing a burning gas bali. just as we see
our sun today
This viii be the "incandescent age, "
q title suggested by Professor Soddy,
After another ten million years the
incandescent earth will have expended
all Of It's heat into space by radiation
and 1t gradually will cool \ new crust
then begins to form anew This is
what we see at present ON the planets
Jupiter and Saturn. worlds just begin
ming to cool after emerging from their
incandescent age.
Thus we find that worlds do not die
They slowly pass from one stage tc
another, in a long and interminable
cycle. 1t is more than probable from
the above that the earth must have
passed many times through this cycle
Probably every time the world went
up In flames man was at his highest
point of civilization, infinitely further
advanced than we are today In al
instant every living soul had perished
and for millions of years his Ike was
not to tread again on the hardened
earth crust.
This is the new and greater gospe
OF radium. the element which vii
emancipate man and which will de
stroy him and his all later.-H. Germs
bach in Electrical EXpel imenter