The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1921-11-29
FINDS LEAD HAS
TWO WEIGHTS
Harvard Professors Win World
Recognition by Researches
With Metals.
RESULT OF IS YEARS. WORK
investigation Throws New Light on the
Nature Of Misunderstanding Of
Two Kinds Of Lead I'M
portant Discovery.

Cambridge, Mass, Nov Z. - The
ninety or more chemical elements out
Of which everything in the universe is
built have been definitely determined
by Harvard chemists in the course of
| Investigations begun thirty-fve years
| ago and extending up to the present
| time
Attention was called to this pro-
Eonged research today by the an
nouncement that largely on account
| of his work in this field Prof. Theo-
| dore w. Richards Nobel prize winner
in 1914 and director Of the Wolcott
Gibbs Memorial laboratory at Har-
ward, had been appointed a member
Of the international committee of
scientists on elements, while Prof
Gregory p. Baxter, formerly pupil
of Prof Richards and now an indie
been chosen for the international COM
mfttee on atomic weights.
The Harvard research is said to
have thrown new light on the perplex-
ing problem of the nature of matter.
while data obtained are being used
daily by thousands of chemists
throughout the world
Weights Found Constant.
The atomic weights of the elements
are described as the relative weights
in which these elements combine with
each other to form the countless sub
of oh hn &c
structed These weights have usually
been found to be amazingly constant
Silver from all parts of the world ana
from many different ores has always |
the same atomic weight. Copper from |
Europe is Identical In this respect with
that mined under the bottom of Lake |
Superior.
Prof. Bakers work long since proved l.
that iron and nickel which fall from
the sky In meteorites coming from the
spaces far beyond the earth's orbit
have exactly the same atomic weights
as iron and nickel from the earth, a
fact cited as indicating in one respect,
at least, the unity Of the universe.
The most important single result of
the Harvard study of atomic weights
Is said to be the discovery, first proved
definitely some years ago by Prof.
Richards and still holding good
through recent careful tests, that
there exist at least two kinds of lead,
instead Of one. 1t was found that lead
from radium minerals, while 1t possess
ses properties exactly similar to those
If ordinary lead has distinctly
smaller atomic weight, 2O6.1 as against
,O78.
Working on Lead.
The lead from the radium minerals
8 supposed to come from the decom-
position Of radium. Why its atomic
weight is different from that of ordi-
lary lead, whether ordinary lead may
lot itself prove to be a mixture of
lighter lead with q heavier variety, I
erhaps due to the disintegratiOn OF
he element thorfum, and whether
ther elements, hitherto supposed to
e final and indivisible, may not also
rove to be mixtures and thus open
p a whole series Of new problems as
D the composition of matter, are Ques-
ions to which the answers are being
agerly sought by scientists over the
yorld today
Prof w. D. Harkins Of Chicago has
trong evidence that ordinary chlorine
! a mixture, and F. W. Aston Of Cam
ridge, England, by an entirely differ
at method, indicates that many other
ements are probably likewise COM
osed of atoms Of different weights.
award chemists are working at pres
1t to try to find out more about these
70 kinds Of lead, but they are ham,
cred by the fact that, once mixed, the
70 kinds cannot by any ordinary
lemical methods be separated.