The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-10-05
RADIUM IS NOW CHEAPER
ONLY $4,000 PER GRAM
VALUE COMPARED WITH PREci-
GUS STONEs-PRoSPEcTlNo
AND MINING COSTS
Uhiladelphia Pubic Ledger

has been. 1t was $4,000 a gram un-
Be til about six months ago Now it Is
down to 100000 in gram lots. Frac-
- uonal parts of gram OF radium are
quoted at the rate of $4,000 a gram
These prices are firm, however, and
e the trend Of the market is upward, ac-
/, cording to IL. T. Bishop, eastern man
, ager of the Radium Company of Colo
RADIO, which ia one of the exhibitors at
the meeting of the American Electro
therapeutic association.
The annual production Of radium in
the last five years has averaged only
30 grams Stocks are down at present
compared with six months ago and
there is relatively little on the market
This would indicate higher prices, but
doctors and hospitals are short of
money just now and the demand has
decreased on that account. With the
general revival of business, however,
which means more money for scientific
purposes, the demand is likely to in
crease and prices advance.
Radium is the hardest thing in the
world to sell, says Mr. Bishop, because
it requires so much educational effort,
so much negotiation and so much
money to complete sale There is
still some argument about the thera-
peutic value of radium. 1t is not a
cure-all but its superior efficacy is ac-
knowledged in certain diseases. Its
field of use is being broadened stead
lily through scientific experiment.
Hospital boards and doctors first
have to be sold" on the curative value
of radium. This takes some time and
a great deal of service and demonstra-
ton. After the customer is convinced,
comes the matter of raising the money
for the purchase of a gram or a frac-
ton of a gram. The price includes a
complete line of instruments-costly in
themselves-for it's internal and exter-
nal application.
The most precious gems are cheap
beside radium. A red diamond, which
is the most costly of all gems, is worth
only $4,000 a gram in a stone weigh
ing two carats. A rs carat green
diamond sells at the rate of $4,000 a
gram; a Is carat blue diamond at the
rate of $S4,2 $50 a gram, and an 11-carat
white diamond at the rate of s1l,5OO a
gram. A 1O-carat emerald is worth
$4,000 a gram, an liz carat ruby
$22, 500 a gram, and a 2O-gram pearl
$4,000 a gram.
But radium is not for adornment
and it costs more to produce than any
thing that ever came out of the earth
On "a oil he fn
tract radium from the ore in which it
is found. More than 200 tons of ore
are necessary to produce one gram of
radium and, in the process, more than
200 tons of chemicals are used-one
ton of chemicals for each ton of ore.
Barium chloride and radium chlor-
ide occur together and can not be
separated physically without infinite
effort. Radium crystallizes out OF the
saturated solution a little more rapid
ly than barium and in order to ex-
tract the pure radium 1900 crystalliza-
tions-each a separate operation
must be brought about. That is one
reason why radium costs so much.
Virtually all the radium comes from
Colorado and southeast
srn Utah. The radium mines are 60. to
100 miles from the railroad. and in one
If the most desolate and barren noun
ain regions OF the earth. The camps
ire so isolated that new men frequent
y go back after the first look. Every
hing has to be carried in and out on
he backs of burros. The only water is
{ the bottom of canyons 5000 feet
eep and 10 or 30 miles from the camp,
nd the only sources of supply are tie
prings tapped by the diamond drills
hen boring to locate radium deposits.
How Ore Is Located
1t costs nearly as much per MILL.
ram of ore to find the radium as it
oes to extract it. Ore bodies are To-
ated by means of diamond drills, each
f which drills about so feet day at
cost of from soc to s1.2O foot. Any
ne drill may operate for several
lonths without finding any of the
catered pockets of ore. Once the ore
found the area of the pocket is
tapped out by drill holes. Then a
laft or an incline is sunk and the ore
ken out.
There are only three radium COM
Radium Company of Colo
do, whose reduction plant is at Dem
sr; the Radium Chemical company,
Pittsburg and the United States Ra-
UNI company Of New York.
How Hospitals Lose II.
Radium has to be carefully guarded
lille in use.
"All over the world in a variety of
mics smaller amounts of radium
alued at from $4,000 to 100000 have
en lost either by a patient walking
Z with the application or by it being
rown into the fire or the ash heap
It'll discarded dressings says Dr..
oward A. Kelly, of Baltimore, in an
ticle in the Modern Hospital.
Danger to workers is through