The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-05-11
MADAME CURE
VISITS AMERICA
Eminent Scientist and CO.
discOverer of Radium
Lands in New York
AMERICAN WOMEN
PLAN GREAT GIFT

| All ffef OWN Has blNeH faHnUuS1
| Remedy to Others Until She Is Poor
To Investigate American Pitchblende.
NEW YORK, May 11.-NTadame Curie,
eminent scientist and co-discoverer of.
radium. was a passenger or the Olympic
which arrived in port this morning.
| Madame Marie Curie, whose discovery
I of radium in 1898 has been called the
realization of the dream of ancient al
chemists was born in Warsaw. Poland,
lon Nov. Z, 1867. Her father, Professor
Sklodowska, was an instructor in physics
and chemistry in the University of War
| saw and for some years before entering
upon her professional career as a scien-
fist she worked in his laboratory Nine.
Curie received the Nobel Prize for chem
istry in 1908.
She married in 1896 Pierre Curie. pro-
feSSOr of general physics in the University
of Paris. who had shared with her the
honor of collaboration in giving her great
| find to the world. Some years later Pro
! feSsor Curie was struck by q wagon in
Paris and killed. His widow succeeded
to his profcssorship. Madame Curie has
| two children. Irene, 20 years old who
| like her mother. has taken up scientific
years.
Discovery EnriCheS World.
The discovery of radium enriched
imany persons throughout the world. 1t
has been estimated that its use during
the war saved the lives of not less than
10000 wounded men. Notwithstanding
the fact that Madame Curie has devoted
more than half of her 53 years to the
study of radioactive substances, she is n
when at home at the InStitut Curie in
Paris on the salary of a teacher at the
SOrbonne.
Il gave my secret to the world" she de
clared. 1t was not to enrich anyone. 1t
was for all people"
Many fantastic stories have been told
about radum and its mysterious proper
ties 1t has been said that an ounce Of
this metallic chemical element found in
pitchbende" is worth more than $1,000
1000. TO obtain which requires the reduc-
itiOn of 5000 tons of ore by the most pains
taking and complicated processes.
lGiven to Humanity.
The modest discovcrcr Of radium has
never. it is said, refused to release it for
the use of humanity the world over. as a
lUcsult Of which her small store has become
exhausted. The great Polish woman
savant's visit to America. primarily for
the purpose Of investigating pitChbendC
deposits in Colorado. Utah, Pennsylvania
and other states, gave rise to the move
mCut on the part of American women t0
supply Madame Curie with a gram of
radium worth 100000 which shall be all
her own" This will enable her to con
tinue her researches along curative lines
when she returns to Paris.
Discovery of Radium.
The discovery of radium came about in
this wise: Professor Roentgeu. a Ger.
man scientist. announced his discovery OF
the X-ray in 1890. These rays possessed
the property Of emitting radiationS of &
special character which were able to penc
tratc through matter Opaque to ordinary
light.
\ year later H. Becquercl a French
physicist, observed that certain uranium
preparations emitted rays resembling
those discovered by Rocntgen. Becquerc
rays became the new wonder and by deli
cate tests were proved to be electrical
Thus began the search for the new Gle
ment and every form of uranium in labora
tories was tested.
Nine. Curic at this point diverged from
the search of other chemists. She went
to Carlsbad where pitchblende had beer
mined for a century for the extraction o.
uranium in making Bohemian glass an6
beautiful dyes. Around the mines Sht
found 30 tons Of refuse, an ANALYSIS oI
which proved it 10 be four times as strong
in Becquerel rays as the radium which
had been taken from the ore. Nine Curit
by long and tedious process of extracting
leda, silver, tin, bismuth and other me
tallic substances from the pile of refus,
dissolved the mass until the residue wa,
60 times stronger than uranium. DR.
Able says of this:
This small remnant glOwed i'm tn,
dark; all but two metals had been elm
mated. These We're known not TO hav,
the slightest radioactivity. Therefore
there could be but one Notwithstanding
Curie was facing mysterious new force
Two years later she was able to announce
4 | its liscnNnrN md LnL LnntLnL of nvLr. ctirl.