The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-24

Uhne. Marie Cur1e, the OlSClnSu1Sll- ed Frenchwoman who recently visited this country to receive a gift of $100,000 worth of radium from a host of ardent admirers, has contributed article on The Radio-Eelements and their Applications" in which she re- lates fascinating story of radium and it's sister elements and their pos abilities. As all the world knows, Mime. Curie shared the honor with her husband, the late Pierre Curie, of discovering the most marvellous of all known elements. She is also re- garded as the worlds most foremost scientist and is a professor at the SOrbonne in Paris.
 The most interesting feature of this fairly long and very comprehensive which every one must regard with keen curiosity. We have been in formed in general terms from the earliest times that the earth's crust was gradually cooling. and there has been pictured to our gloomy compre- henSion a cold and barren world; true, the time was far distant, but still it was coming, it would seem. The picture was vivid enough to pro- yoke a shiver of apprehension In the last decade the question has been raised as to what truth there was in this. Some bold spirits have been es- serted that the earth was getting warmer, and this country's experi- ence during the last month would tend to confirm it in the minds of many
 Earth Not Cooling.
 Now comes Mime. Curie with a fully developed explanation which accounts for the latter hypothesis. She says the earth is getting warmer because it's radioactive emanation more than offsets the heat that is lost daily by radiation, so that we have a surplus of warmth that is being added to hourly. She reaches the conclusion that this fact must change our an cient opinion concerning the globe S evolution.
 Radioactive substances produce all sorts of astonishing phenomena which, for the most part, are going on all around us practically unob- | served by the vast majority of man. 1 kind. Thus:
 Radioactive substances produce and gamma rays'-named for their | different strengths and sources
 just like the rays from the Crookes | tubes, excite phosphorescence or flu
 excited by light. PIatinocyanide ot barium gives a beautiful green f1uor-
 CSC ence SuIfide of zinc is particularly | sensitive to A-rays under whose ac' tion it gives a fine green light, whicf | persists after the action of the rays
 ''If the luminosity produced by the alpha rays is examined by magn1 flying glass, it can be seen to resolve l lnCO luIn1nOuS pOli1lS WHICH dppeal
 successively like brilliant lights or
 the bottom of the screen in such z
 way that the phenomenon appears
 like sky swarIning with fugitive
 stars, called scintllations.
 This phenomenon has been givel
 an important application. It has beer
 proven that each alpha ray produces
 a scintillation. One particle pos
 this isolated effect on the screen. A
 a consequence-so many scintilla
 tionS, so many rays received by tn
 screen. This gives us a way of count
 ing the alpha rays, and this metho' gives us the same result as the cleo
 trometric. The numeration of tn
 alpha rays has led to results of grea
 importance in regard to the natur of these rays.
 Celebration From Rays.
 The alpha, beta and gamma ray 1 produce various chemical effect:
 among which may be cited those c porcelain, channels. The effect pro duced is violet or brown. accordin to the nature of the substances, tn process corresponding otS, to a a, eertai iai | effects may be cited, some of whic | are very important. Thus the ray | are capable of decomposing wate | into oxygen and hydro ogen with tn | formation of an explosive mixture. | solution of radium thus constant l evolves gases, and this evolution l utilized in aiding the separation ( | radium radiation
 | The radioactive bodies give rise t an evolution of heat It can be e: | taiblished that a radio-element | great power, such as radium, is constant source of heat.
 ii The experiment consists in prt Ii tecting a tube of radium against e II loric loss-in isolating it from tn II theTTnic point of view-whfch can | accomplished by placing it in a dol l hIa-wa He'd cnntainar yCith 9 ing of the latter plugged with cottoI N If thermometer is placed in u II neighborhood of the tube, the ten N perature will be seen to rise to II point which may exceed by sever II degrees that of the surroundir II space The evolution of heat is pril il cipaIly associated with alpha rays. H is recognized to play an inportal II part in the thermic equilibrium of u inl rIa