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Show r3fl57 Ipenfific P6 ExP!aia Hie Many Wonders of Radium': jj i r OL-IS. JM"o aS--In thc UnltCd 5 'T-L8 Government building at IS th World's Fair two lectures are ' cn dally on the new element, I The Ple itself Is hardly more iiB than these demonstrations. 6 ? JoT the room Is crowded to Its jTJOJt-11 nsrl(on, crowd about the j fSir to IT ndimn l 2' sneer, or OTHoia fever. "Doca Mi Hi ,"' mnr la Lj constantly. 1 Kt cannot say that it will cure can-J. can-J. V is being tried." said the demon-fcfi demon-fcfi ktor the other morning. & , of the assistants explained that :dW" 0f cancer (and other diseases. gjg the patient quinine, ru- 1 dlum rays turned upon the body would so Illuminate the flesh that a cancer could be distinctly seen. These same rays are used to burn out thlB dreaded germ and they1 are also employed successfully suc-cessfully in destroying typhus germs. Internal Fires of Radium. Scientists claim for this new element that the internal fires -which nourish a bit of radium and make it glow with Its own Hcht must have been at work when thc earth Itself was a sun, and for all we know will continue after many bodies now suns have grown cold. Tho sun of knowledge respecting radium- Is that It exists. It was discovered discov-ered by means of Its powerful radiations radia-tions long before any radium had been obtained from pitchblende or any evidence evi-dence of Its presence existed. Scientists say that this remarkable power or radiation has been traced to three elements, and three only of -The many elements prcsint In the minerals In qustlon. Two of them, uranium and thorium, have long been known to chemists, but these possess the property prop-erty to a. feeble degree. The third, radium, ra-dium, possesses the power of radiation to such a remarkable extent that, although al-though it exists in the mineral pitchblende pitch-blende In the proportion of less than one-millionth part of the whole, it yet makes the substance several times as active a pure uranium or thorium. Just aa helium was discovered by means of its spectrum In the sun be-" be-" fore any samples of helium Were in the possession of terrestrial chemists, so radium was discovered by means of its powerful radiations. Computation of the total atomic energy of one gram of radium has been made a slxteen-candle power Incandescent lamp over a period of millions of years. Importance of the Discovery. If ractlum Is what some of these scientists scien-tists conjecture the discovery of radium Is second only to the discovery of thc law of gravitation. It would change our present commerce, Industries and systems until wc would be as far beyond be-yond our present progress as we are now this World's Fair year beyond the primitive Indian. If this, indeed, were so, Mme. Curie, who so logically and brilliantly discovered this new clement, should be invited to the "World's Fair as Its most distinguished guest, At the radium exhibitions they pay there 1c so little radium In the world that it Is worth 58,000.000 a pound. There Is no pure radium shown. It Is a dlrty-looking dlrty-looking little powder and tho demon strator used a speck about the size of a cambric needle-point on a little instrument in-strument called the spinthariscope. This In a small metal tube, two inches long, having magnifying lenses at one end and being clored at the other. In the closed;' end there are tiny yellow crystals of zinc sulphldo stuck on a disk of paper, before which s"tando a pointer like the hand of a watch. On the tip of this Is a speck of radium. "Watching the spinthariscope, one can Me a constant flow of points of light which come from the zinc sulphide paper. The demonstrator says that these radiations would go on for thousands thou-sands of years -without lessening the energy of the rajllum. That would mean perpetual motion. Compared to Gold in Weight. Radium Is a metal, the Government official will tell you. Its weight is 221, as compared with gold, 196. It constantly con-stantly transmutes rays without losing weight. Although It is one of the heaviest heav-iest substances" known, yet it can be turned Into helium, a gaseous element which la very light. Radium is composed com-posed of atoms, like everything else, and these atoms are full of electrons, which are supposed to be almost in-flnltes'lmally in-flnltes'lmally unimaginable particles of electricity. The sole value of this new element is scientific; it would give us new notions about everything. Prof. George F. Kunz, of the United States geological survey, the Government Govern-ment expert of the radium exhibits in the Government building and In the Pal ace of Mines and Metallurgy, showed the writer Bampleg of radium In the latter lat-ter building. In a glaes case were pieces of pitchblende, from which radium ra-dium comcB, and then, in a row ot tiny vials half wrapped In cotton and inclosed in-closed In other sealed bottles, were particles par-ticles of this precious brown dust called raGlum (not In tho pure state). Prof. Earnest Rutherford of England has suggested that radium causes the earth's heat, but Prof. Kunz said: "There la so little radium in the world that if it was nil crystalized to-getln-'- it would hae no more effect In heating or lighting the earth than would one Incandescent electric light upon the 1240 acres of ground comprising compris-ing this "World's fair. There Is so little lit-tle radium in the world that it can hardly change our present systems, but, like other discoveries, it may have an appreciable influence upon the scientific world." |