|
A new metallic substance called radium has been discovered by a Polish woman, Madame Sklodowska Curie, who, with her husband, is engaged in scientific work in Paris. Radium is a white crystalline powder, a combination of several metals, with an illuminating power that far eclipses the Roentgen or X-rays. Its rays travel almost as fast as sunlight and can pierce three feet of iron, burn through metallic cases and take photographs in closed trunks. Professor Curie, the husband of the discoverer, says that he would not venture into a room containing two pounds of radium, as it would probably destroy his eyesight, burn off his skin and even kill him.
Now, before scientists have finished marveling at the new and mysterious metal, the Polish woman has added another to her triumphs in chemistry, by the discovery of a still more wonderful element to which she has patriotically given the name of polonium, in compliment of her native country. In a much higher degree than radium it possesses the property of shining in the dark and, like radium, this strange substance does not seem to exhaust itself or lose its luminous powers with the passage of time. Polonium is extracted from pitchblende, a black mineral found in Bohemia and heretofore considered valueless, after uranium had been extracted from it. Uranium is most commonly used for imparting fine orange tints to glass and porcelain enamel. As yet too little is understood of the marvelous properties of this new metal to predict just what its uses will be in medicine, surgery and other sciences; but it is not improbable that it may be found to perform the present functions of the Roentgen or X-rays far more powerfully, and without their cumbrous apparatus. Its vast value, $1,000,000 a pound, must always keep it as a laboratory subject, but one that is pregnant with possibilities to the scientific world. The total supply in the world is estimated at two pounds, which, if gathered together, would contain enough potential energy to swing the globe from its orbit. It projects invisible elections—or scientific particles of matter—at the amazing rate of 1,200,000 miles per second. It neither tests nor destroys anything, but a plate of radium one inch square would shine successfully for a million years. William J. Hammer, an electrical engineer of New York, has made a series of photographs and radiographs by the light of radium. Among them is a radiograph of a mouse, taken by laying the animal directly on the plate, which was then placed in the bottom of a trunk, wrapped in rugs and allowed to remain there twenty-four hours. The future uses of radium are likely to be various and important. In connection with the treatment of blindness and cancer, great and beneficent results are confidently expected. The extremely limited supply thus far available restricts its application to industrial purposes; but is understood that a small fraction of an ounce, properly employed, would probably furnish a good light for several rooms, which would last, without renewal, for a hundred years. Calculations have been made indicating that the potential force inherent in one gramme of radium will raise 500 tons to the height of a mile. An ounce would therefore be sufficient to propel a 50-horse-power motor car at the rate of 30 miles an hour around the world. The most recent discovery in connection with radium, through the experimentations with radium is that a dense vapor is thrown off by it, which is gradually transformed into helium and afterward disappears. This antagonizes a basic idea in chemistry. The gas now found to emanate from it is measurable and weighable and can be bottled, but vanishes within a few weeks. It was at the moment of its disappearance that its spectrum was discovered by Prof. Ramsay to show the peculiar features of helium, which grew more manifest until the identity was established. This astounding transformation suggests the problem whether, if one metal can change into another of a different nature, a similar transmutation, under certain conditions, may not likewise affect many other substances in metallurgy. The latest prediction from scientific sources is that a species of radium will soon be obtainable from petroleum by certain processes now being pursued. SNAP-SHOTS OF THE HUMAN VOICE |
