Evening star., 1941-05-03
Gold and Platinum
OF New Type Reported
Made From Mercury
Very Small Quantities
Obtained, Physicists at
Harvard Announce
By THOMAS r. HENRY.


Transmutation of mercury into
hitherto unknown forms of gold
and platinum was announced before
the American Physical Society here
today by Drs. R. Sherr and K. T.
Bainbridge of Harvard University.
The mercury was bombarded with
high speed neutrons, the nom
charged particles which make up
much of the nuclei of atoms, which
we're knocked loose from ithium by
nuclei of the atoms of heavy hydro
gen propelled by a cyclotron with
the force of II 100000 electron volts.
After the bombardment, the ply
sicists announced, three types of
gold and four types of platinum
were obtained in almost infinitesim-
ally minute qlantitieS-but the
merest trace was sufficient for the
claim that one of the ancient dreams
of the alchemiStS had been fulfilled.
All the new elements are radio
active One of the gold forms
IlllllCl W lldd bCCil Sy PC
half of whose atoms exploded every
48 minutes. There were two other
forms of exploding gold-one with
a half life of 65 and the other of
78 hours.
Platinum Types New.
The platinum types were all new,
although two of them are very close
to forms of this element known be-
fore
In every exhaled breath of bu-
man being there are approximately
200 100000 particles nearly 100 times
the size of air molecules.
Their nature and origin are un-
known, but plausible theory Is that
they are the smoke" of the fires of
life, the constant burning of carbo-
hydrates which maintains the tenn
perature of the body.
Discovery of these hitherto un-
known particles was announced by
DR.. G. r. Wait, physicist of the Car
negie Institution of Washington. He
finds, he reported, that the large
charged particles breathed from the
lungs quickly capture the small ions
In the air of room in which sew
eral persons are assembled. They
may play a role, as yet unknown,
as carriers of disease causing micro
organisms. They explain, DR.. Wait
says, why one is able to see ones
breath on a frosty morning in an
exceptionally clear atmosphere
Two Ways of Counting.
The majority of them appear to
be electrified, either positively or
negatively. There are two ways of
counting them, both of which give
about the same figure of 200 900 900
per breath. One is by means of an
adaptation of the so-called Wilson
cloud chamber, where air condenses
on particles in much the same way
That clouds are formed in the sky.
The other is by means of a counting
device for electrified particles.
1t long has been known, DR.. Wait
explained, that the atmosphere is
filled with small "ions"-air mole
cules with outer electrons knocked
on some of their atoms by the
emanations of radium and thorium
in the soil and radon and thoron in
the atmosphere near the ground.
These ions are being formed and
are destroyed continually by one
another and by the large ions pres
ent in the atmosphere.
Larger ions result when the rela-
lively large particles in the air be-
come electrified These large ions
are especially common in the smoke
OF chimneys, exhausts of automo-
biles, etc. They also are found over
the sea, originating from salt par
ticles in the spray.
Moisture Condenses.
When breath is exhaled on a cold
morning, its moisture condenses
around such particles. If the air
were free of them, as in an open.
snow-covered countryside, on a
mountain top or in the desert, it
would be expected that the breath
would be invisible, but it never is.
The explanation Is given by DR.,
Waits finding of particles in the
exhalation itself.
A source of small ions is the dis
tntegration of radium and thorium
IN their soil and in their products
In the air. The first step in this
disintegration results in the pro-
duction of a pure gas, radon or
thoron, which is also radioactive.
When an atom of these gases
"blows up" it becomes a solid par
ticle again and simultaneously
sends out a radiation which bonn
bards air molecules along its path.
This bombardment separates the
negative from the positive charge
and converts neutral molecules to
electrically charged ones, which are