Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-13
M0fAer Of Radlum Returns
THiszlouth Her Second Vi Amica Her Many
Discovered Be Used the gand Disease Poland

doactivity of each substance separated. The
ore contained large number of elements, each
one of which had TO be collected by the most
careful chemical analysis and tested The new
radioactive substance did not amount to q mill
honth of per cent of the original ore. Never
theless, polonium named after Nine Curie'S
native country, was discovered in July. 1898,
and radium in December of the same year.
In order to obtain more than a few specks
of either of these substances it necessary
to work with large quantities of ore, and Nine.
Curie gave her entire time to isoating more
radium and polonium In order that they might
determine the nature of these substances. This
work had to be carried out in an abandoned
storeroom, which was merely a wooden shed
with asphalt floor, roof which did not
keep out the rain and without any fittings.
The only objects which this magnificent lab
oratory contained were some old pine tables.
a cast iron stove and blackboard. There was
no ventilator to carry off the poisonous gases
given of in the chemical analysis. so that In
good weather they worked outside of the build
ing in courtyard, and when the weather was
unfavorable they worked inside with the win
dows left open. This in Paris Winter. In her
published account of the life of her husband
she says
I'VE were at this time entirely absorbed in
the new field that opened before us, thanks to
the discovery so little expected. And were
under which we worked. We passed our days
at the laboratory, often eating a simple stu
dents lunch there great tranquility reigned
in our poor, shabby hangar; occasionally, while
observing an operation we would walk up and
down. talking of our work, present and future.
When we were cold cup of hot tea, drunk
beside the stove cheered us. We lived in q
preoccupation as complete as that OF dream.
Sometimes we returned in the evening after
dinner for another survey of our domain. Our
for uyl1in VuQ mn
were arranged on tables and boards from all
sides we could see their slightly luminous sil-
houettes and these gleamings, which seemed
suspended in the darkness stirred US with ever
new emotion and enchantment."
GO wretched were the conditions under which
these two devoted persons worked that they
even had to pay out of their own meager in
comes for some of the chemicals which they
used and their combined incomes were at that
time about one-fifth of what an able-bodied
bricklayer could make in the city of New YORK
not in 1929, but in 1900.
The effect of the discovery these two vas
q crushing blow. Pierre Curie, scientist OF
extraordinary ability, who, with his brother, had
discovered whole new field in the electrical ef-
fects of pressure and heat on crystals, was over
whelmed with demands for speeches, public
lectures, portraits, autographS-the thousand
infiict upon some one who has achieved Q
great discovery. He complained, humorously
but sadly, that he had to write so many letters
that he could not find time for his work. He
refused all honors and begged only that he be
given space enough and supplies enough to
carry on the thousand things which remained
to be done; and, in spite of the French appre-
citation Of intellectual achievement, these two
persons who have given more fame to France
than almost any one else except Pasteur, con-
tinued to work in poverty and great physical
discomfort owing to the lack of ordinary lab0-
ratory convenienceS.
When I took Nine. Curie into the great
physics laboratory of Columbia University and
showed her some of the experimental equip
ment with which that great institute is pro-
Wded her establishment was such that she
could scarcely speak. In q single room the
students and Investigators in that institution
had more apparatus than she had ever pos
sessed in her entire lifetime. or, matter of
fact, would ever possess though she now holds
her husbands position of professor in the
university.
They were told that they should patent their
processes for extracting radium and that they
. would thus become rich but they both felt
that their work was entirely for humanity and
that any patenting of these processes would
inevitably result in high prices, and that II
any practical value resided in their discovery
it should be turned over to the people who
needed 1t. ss7t.'- af, fsefs
It is a shabby story and yet wonderful
one. because. as the work went on they were
aided by brilliant chemists and physicists work.
ing in other departments of the university,
who helped them for the pure love Of discovery
and who, without claiming any reward or even
without desire to share in the glory OF the new
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