Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-08-13
UNITED STATES
MANUFACTURES
MOST RADIUME

LIZ Ed
MANUFACTURES
MOST RADIUM
There / about 40 grams of radi-
UNI In the world, and Of this ~
grams. or more than half, has been
produced by the Standard Chemical
company OF Pittsburgh, which also
produced the -radium presented to
Madam Curie by President Harding
during her recent visit here. This
a its plant neal Pittsburg
ana ia laboratories are in that CITY.
y thu ore from which the radium
a. oDtalned comes from Colorado, and
.ss vaalaoillty today is the result Of
.ne eilorts OF Joseph M. Flannery, the
1wunoer OF the company. When Mr..
rad1um bearing ore he discovered that
the only source of supply worth yghils
was IN the American southwest. and
mat II quantitative production Of ra-
oluna. was to be attained these ores
"ouid have to be developed.
IN q desolate part of southwestern
colorado and in southeastern Utah
tnere were large deposits of an ore
called carnotite. These cover about
q square miles. The district
IN which the greater quantity of these
ores were to be found is about 65
miles from a railroad and so noun
famous that In many places there Is a
rise or fau in the local trails of 1900.
feet in a mile,
frlor to the world war, says a bull
leun od!tne National City bank telling
OF radlum and its source, carnotite
ores from these deposits were shipped
ABROAD Tor French and German pro-
oucton OF radiumi on a small scale.
The >embargoes on shipping stoned
this export completely, although it
mad already been falling off.
Much Waste Material.
In h European ores with which
Madam Curie had worked" continues
the bank, "there was about a granite
radlum in every five or six tons. In
the Colorado ores there Is only one
gram Or radtum in every five or six
hundred tons of ore, and to Obtain
eacn OF these five or six hundred tons.
1t is frequently necessary to, handle
one hundred tons of worthless ma
terials. The men that had worked
with the European ores were few; they
could be counted easily. They were
unwilling to work in the wilderness, ol
Colorado. For the new conditions
Mr.. Flannery trained new men.
"Headquarters was established at a
point central to the work as a whole.
A concentration mill was built at a
point that was convenient to the many
ore claims that he bought and leased.
Burros, were used to carry the pres
from the deposits in the mountains to
b mill, and to carry back to the
miners n water and other. supplies,
Tor all of which they were dependent
upon the general headquarters.
Where the ore appeared on the
surface and along the rim rocks, its
extraction was comparatively easy,
with small charges Of dynamite.
When, as more frequently happens,
the deposits are found under a heavy
overload of other material, regular
mining tunnels are run and dynamite
charges used to break the rock and
other materials SO that it may be
carried to the surface. In size tho ore
bodies vary from pockets containing
a few : pounds to deposits yielding
as much as 1900 tons In very excep-
tional cases
/, "As there are often no indications
leading to a deposit Of ore, prospect
Ing is done by drilling, in what seem
likely spots with jack hammers and
diamond drills. When there Is not
more than rs feet Of earth and other
material over any ore, the pack ham
naer driven By compressed air. is the
cheapest method Of working.
This detailed and expensive study
OF this region has proved Of great
value to the governments In connection
with a thought that it might have
been necessary to make the radium
ore lands a centration mill in the
w1ds of Colorado, 500 tons Of ore is
reduced to a powdered form and
sacked. These sacks, weighing about
70 pounds, are transported by wagon
and where possible by motor, truck,
the IS. miles to Placerville, Col. There
q narrow gauge railway takes it to
the transcontinental railroad at Sail
da, Col,
Ore Taken 1890 Miles.
from salida, it travels 1900 miles
to Canonsburg, Pa, just outside At
Pittsburg, where the company main
tains its refining plant. At the mill in
Colorado and in the operations per-
tanning to it some 800 men are kept
busy. At the Canonsburg plant 200
men are necessary to carry through
all the detailed work. When the ore
is taken up by the Colorado mill,
there Is only one part radium. for
every 400, 100000 parts of the ore.
AS this ore reaches the mill at Can
onsburg, there is 100, 0oo,0 900 parts of
the ore for every part of radium.
1.-THE task of the Canonsbure men
is to reduce this mass of ore to less
than a quarter of a ton and to have
the radium that may be in the great
er IA in the small residue. To
eliminate this 100, 900, 900 parts of IN
desirable, material, this Canonsburg
plant has to use 10. tons Of distilled
water, 1000 tons of coal and 500 tons
Of chemicals.
What small quantity of vanadium
and uranium there may be in this ma
terial Is saved while this reduction is
being made. When the material that
reached Canonsburg from the millN in
the west has been reduced to less than
a quarter OF a ton, this is sent to the
radium research laboratories Of the
company in Pittsburg. AS it reaches
the laboratory this material is in the
form Of radium .barium chloride. BY
successive fractional capitalization Of
the radium chloride and, at a later
stage, Of the bromide. most Of the RAJ
dunn is obtained in a salt containing
more than s5 per cent Of pure radium
bromide. By further chemical treat
ment the bromide is converted into
the sulphate, OF the chloride, and in
the therapeutic use of radium these
two salts hnd the largest use.
For the 8 by the medical pro-