The L'Anse sentinel., 1923-06-22
Radiurm Treasury
Atop Skyscraper

In Paris the laboratory OF Nine.
Cure Is part of the Sorbonne or Uni
versity Of Paris and now occupies the
Radium institute, close to the Pan
theon. The radium owned by the labo-
ratory originally was presented to the
institute by Nine. Curie in the form of
radium residues from which only one
gram of radium has been extracted.
Recently, during her visit to this coun-
try, Nine. Curie was presented with a
gram of radium, which she took back
to Paris with her.
Difficulty Of Handling.
Although the medical value of radi-
um has been sufficiently established,
proper treatment involving the use of
radium cannot be given by every ply
sician. For example, the radium ema-
nation loses half its strength in a little
more than three days. That Is to say,
after three and part days, half of the
gas has changed into other products.
At the end of month all of it has
changed and there is no emanation
left. Without some knowledge of radio
activity a physician would not be able
TO know the strength of the material
he was using. Until the discovery of
radium the atom was understood to be
indivisible. In radium the atoms are
constantly and spontaneously splitting
up and, after they have split, form
new substances. The atoms of radium
break up to form radium emanation,
tt.h oh In, tItr
Of another radium, producing another
and still another, each instance dis
tinctly different from the atoms Of ra-
dium which were Its forefathers.
From an ordinary Office the visitor is
led into a laboratory containing an
amazingly complicated and delicate APP
paratus OF glass and glstening mer-
curry. On all sides are barred win
dows electrically articulated so that
the least attempt to break in would be
instantly recorded, and In q manner
that would surprise the most intrepid
intruder. This room is the outer por-
tal to the reservoir.
Like a Torture Chamber.
From the barred, prison-lke ante
room q massive lead door with three
locks opens into lead room, dark and
much like what youthful and roman
tic Imagination would conjure up ms n
medieval torture chamber The room,
about twelve or fourteen feet square,
has five tons of lead in It's walls to pro-
tect people passing in the corridors be-
yond and working in offices adjacent.
In the very center of the lead-lined
room, standing like n sacriflcial altar,
is a safe lifted high into the air by a
concrete pedestal 1t is the heart of
the reservoir, the origin of the never
ceasing flow of energy. Although the
emanation Is decaying from day to day
a fresh crop is being spontaneously
manufactured by the radlum within
the safe. The radium is placed near
the ceiling to assist the passage of the
emanation through the glass labyrinth
leading from the top Of the safe The
emanation stops three times on It's way
out of the lead room or reservoir, each
time losing part Of its Impurities,
until 1t passes through the leac wall,
by It's glass t1be, into the apparatus in
the outer laboratory. Here the emana-
tion, now pure and unmixed with air,
is forced by the pressure Of mercury
and air into a glass capillary tube
hardly larger than a thread. It Is then
sealed and pu. into lead box ready
to be measured.
No one enters the lead room Idly, be-
cause in II the radium emanations are
unfiltered. But peepholes covered with
lead glass enable the observer outside
OF the lead room to see what Is happen
ing within.
Below the reservoir and away from
the influence Of its contents there Is
another room--a windowless room-in
which are placed the delicate instru-
ments used In measuring the strength
Of the radlum emanation, a galvanome-
ter and finely adjusted electroscope
In the galvanometer is a tiny mirror
hanging by a delicate thread. This
mirror reflects an electric light along a
scale placed about three feet In front
of It.. When the emanation is placed
over a positive and a negative cleo
trode II causes the bases between the
two to become conductors of electric