Show manufacture OF RADIUM egi jave have you found any pitchblende in your claim such a question would be a really natural one at the present time upon the meeting of two prospectors or miners owing to the added interest given the subject of radium and its production by the generosity of thomas F walsh of denver every miner almost nowadays is on the lookout for pitchblende and no doubt exists but that this character of rock will be found in commercial quantity in some portions of this western mining country when found and the manufacture of radium is undertaken on a reasonable and substantial basis this rare metal will not sell so high As it is if the mining review had an ounce of this precious stuff it would build a skyscraper on main street put in a great printing office and get out the greatest mining paper the industry has ever known the review therefore takes a decided interest in pitchblende its discovery and production and in its issue of october 30 published a very interesting article entitled some notes on pitchblende by edward R E M which surely made a hit with the mining men of this intermountain re gion no radium has been produced in this country as yet A very small amount has been produced in europe and steps are now being taken for its more extended manufacture the new york sun in commenting on this subject says once it was possible to buy radium at 2 a milligramme milli gramme now the market price is 90 a milligramme milli gramme equal to an ounce this was one of the striking statements in a very interesting speech delivered by sir william ramsay at the foundation ceremony of a new radium factory in limehouse an eastern suburb of london the british radium corporation which is going to extract radium from pitchblende found in the trenwith mine cornwall is believed to be the first company in the world to attempt the production of the precious mineral on a commercial basis A secret process discovered by sir william ramsay himself who is chief consulting chemist to the corporation will reduce the period of manufacture from nine months to six or seven weeks work in the london factory will start at the end of this year and meanwhile a plant has been erected at st ives cornwall where the pitchblende ore will be crushed so that the material for treatment may be sent up to london in the more portable form of concentrate or high grade ore even in this crude state radium makes its presence felt and heavy rubber gloves have to be worn by those handling it at the foundation stone laying ceremony sir william ramsay traced the progress of scientific knowledge concerning the blew w element from the initial experiments of Becque rel to the more definite discoveries of M and mme ame curie he then spoke of that impressive discovery concerning radium if left alone it gives a quantity of helium the transmutation into helium taking place spontaneously radium he said is always changing into helium in the early days the only available sources of radium were in austria there was some land in sweden which contained a small amount of radium but not in sufficient quantity to repay the cost of extraction when the possibilities of the cornwall mines were first mentioned sir william confessed he discouraged the idea think that the demand would not be great but things havi have changed since them the royal society being very anxious to get some radium tried to get it from austria but the austrian government placed an embargo on the export of radium and pitchblende the prince of wales lent his influence to the socie tys efforts with the result that the austrian government agreed to give it half a ton of pitchblende residues which was sent to paris to be worked up then king edward took a great interest in the matter and the radium institute was formed by sir arnest E rnest cassel and lord iveagh the total quantity of radium which has been recovered for scientific use throughout the world is estimated not to exceed a quarter of a pound |