OCR Text |
Show Two New Elements. The discovery of two now elements by an American chemist, Prof. Charles Ban-korvllio Ban-korvllio of tho University of North Carolina, Caro-lina, Is an event of considerable Importance. Import-ance. If the chemical world accepts tho work of this 6clentlat. as thofc Is ovcry reason to expect. Tho discovery was made In tho course of an extended Investigation Inves-tigation on thorium, an clement originally discovered by Bcrzellua, and which, In the form of an oxldo. U an Important constituent constit-uent of the mantlo of tho Welsbach Incandescent In-candescent gaslight Thorium Is a radioactive radio-active substance of large atomic weight, and the same properties aro also possessed by the new elements, to which tho names carolinium nnd bcrellum have been as- i elgned by Prof. Bnskervlllo. the former In honor of tho State of North Carolina and tho latter for tho famous Swedish chcml3t. Samples havo been submitted sub-mitted to Sir William Crookes, tho vetoran British authority In chomlstrv, and hu will endeavor to verify Baskervllle's work, which, howover, has been received favorably favor-ably by chemist nt largo. With every discovery of this kind, and especially of the recent radioactive elements, there Is a general dlacupslon ad to the nature of elements, ele-ments, and a largo number of scientists now bellcvo that thoy aro all essentially tho same substance, but existing under different conditions. Nearly all tho elements ele-ments of high atomic weight arc radioactive, radioac-tive, and it Is believed that they aro breaking up or undergoing some change HarDcr's Wt-ekly. |