| Show I Radium Versus Ver u. u Coal CoalBY I 4 1 BY GARRETT P. P SERVISS SIR WILLIAM RA RAMSAY l I SA Y has stirred up ur upa a hornets nest In England b by renewing tho the warning which already has often been uttered that the coal supply at the present increasing rate of oC consumption will wll be bc exhausted Ina Ina in ina a relatively short time and antI then theu un- un Unless unless less there is some source of ot power to take tako its place good good-by to the prosperity prosperity prosperity pros pros- of or Great Britain Sir William Ramsay fixes s upon years ears as the longest period that tho the known supplies of coal can last One of or his critics undertakes to show that this should be extended to years cars But what matters the precise time Ir if f there is a sure limit Whether it comes sooner or later tho the exhaustion of the th coal supply spell ruin ruin ruin- unless in fn tho the m meantime a substitute can be found Sir William Ramsay hImself s suggests the bare hare possibility that hat the tho needed substitute may mar be he found in radium If H he says the 1760 years ears which i a ton o of radium requires in order to evolve o half haIr the enormous energy stored within it would be artificially cut cut down to thirty years the power thus developed would be equal to that derived from front tho the consumption of oC a i million and a half tons of oC coal coat and nd tItus thus the energy oC of a single ton of radium would woud tI suffice to propel a sh slIp ship of oC tons burden with engines of horsepower at a speed of ot fifteen knots knot an hour for a period of or thirty years a The only difficulty Is to find the way to acc accelerate the atomic gration That problem at nt present presents a blank wall waIl which there seems to be he no means of ot surmounting But let It once be solved and there appears to be no rio reason wh why the tho rate of or acceleration should not be bo in indefinItely indefinitely Increased and radium or some cognate substance be turned into a source of or mechanical energy such as tho the world has never nc dreamed of ot Radium it IH is true is a very yeo rare substance but this fact need not be bo regarded as lS fatal to the supposition that tha radio activity may some som da day be utilized as a source of ur power ower Dr Gu Gustav le Ie Bon believes that he ha has proved and Sir William Ramsay Rama also admits ls tho the possibility that all tho the chemical elements when placed under proper conditions ma may exhibit a sim sim- ilar liar tendency to change with evolution c I of energy If sa says s 's tho the great En English lish chemist chemist chem chem- some omo form torm of catalyser could be bo discovered which would usefully In Increase Increase Increase In- In crease their almost Inconceivably abl slow rate of oC change then it ft is n not not t too much to sa say that the whole future of our race would be altered Who Vho will wiil find this catalyser and how soon It Is the fountain of youth for Cor tho world world may may the Ponce de 10 deLeon deLeon Leon of science be more successful I than titan his buccaneering predecessor or |
