Evening star., 1923-09-23
ME manufacture of radium is
a long and toilsome process.
In Czechoslovakia, where

II long anu tOlISOIu6 pTOCcSS.
In Czechoslovakia, where
famous mines are situated,
at Joachimsthal. it is a government
secret guarded closely by government
officials. although as a matter of fact
the process is sufficiently well known,
so that any one possessing a mine
yielding pitchblende need not worry
radium. At Nogent-sur-M Marine, in
France, there is a radium factory"
which is well known. Here huge
hoppers are the first part of the ap-
paratus which attracts the attention
of the visitor. These hoppers receive
the carloads of pitchblende which are
shipped in after having been obtained
in various parts of the world.
Next the ore is passed to crushers
short order to a fine powder. This
powder is then conveyed to a large
steel vat, where 1t Is subjected to a
strong bath of hydrochloric acid.
After receiving this treatment there
is found remaining in the bottom of
the vat muddy mass. This dirty
residue contains the precious metal.
1t is washed with pure water and
after this washing a strong solution
At the edge of the vat stand work
men, whose duty it is constantly to
stir the mixture with large wooden
paddles. In fact, this part Of the
process is not much more romantic
than is a steam laundry. Finally the
liquid is again drawn off. The same
sort of a mass of dirty mud, although
not so much of it, remains in the bot
tom of the vat still. Again II receives
a copious bath of water and again
the liquid is drawn Off, leaving still
less of the mud.
THE process has now reached its
crucial stage. The residue is
next treated with diluted hydro
able radium salts have risen from
their base surroundings and are held
in solution. The actual process IS
not so quickly disposed of as this,
but. roughly speaking, these are the
principal stages. in the extraction of
radium.
The precious fluid is then drawn
off and carefully filtered. and then 1t
is mixed with sulphuric acid. That
produces a precipitation, and the solid
matter thus secured is radium- bear
ing sulphate, and this is only slightly
radioactive. more treatment with
carbonate of soda, hydrochloric acid.
and hydrobromic acid being neces-
sary. At last emerges very impure
radium bromide.
Then the process is transferred
from the factory to the laboratory
and after a constantly increasing
crystallization of the radium bromide,
the mass obtained is 1000 times as
words. the ton of original material
has now been reduced to something
like one ounce. It has still to undergo
various processes, which reduce it in
weight to one one-hundredth. The
whole series of treatments takes
from one to four months and at the
end of that time pure radium bromide
Is extracted. Now, by the process
devised by Mime. Curie. pure radium
itself can be isolated from this COM
pound.
Yet in spite of it's almost priceless
value and the long process of extrac-
tion, radium salts really comes from
material which, within only a decade
or two, was. practically waste The
English company that owns the mine
in Cornwall, from which a great part
of the radium supply in Great Britain
is now derived, some time ago paid
nearly dollar a ton to have 100
tons of this residue carried away
and dumped on the waste heaps out
side of the town. II would gladly"
said an official of the company not
long ago, give s25.0o0 today to re-
cover that waste pitchblende / do
not know where ii Is now, but 1t was
dumped on building land and some of
the workmen of the town are now liv-
ing over radium beds and do not
know it."
Indeed, it is declared that even in
London there are several hundred
tons of this waste as 1t was once
spoken of, which were carried away
from the scrap heap OF company en-
gagged in extracting uranium. and
used for leveling and laying out roads,
and the filling of foundations of
houses. Pitchblende, it may be men
toned, has been used in coloring
glass, and many persons who possess
old sample of that art today
harbor. all unknown to them, a.
minute trace of radium.
Ax#
MOT the least of the problems con-
: necfed with the most wonderful
and expensive of metals. radium. is its.
preservation. II the making of
radium is attended by almost insuper-
able difficulties the care OF it after
|its Is extracted 10 no less difficult. Not
only has tisia precious substance to.