GUARDING RADIUM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10169, 28 July 1924, Page 8

GUARDING RADIUM.

BOTTLING CURATIVE GAS, At -every institution where radium is in daily use there is a radium sentry, declares H.M.F. in the “Daily Chronicle,” . It is his business at the end of the day to see that the precious commodity is locked away m a, sate. It may be only a thimbleful, but it will he worth about. £IO,OOO. Not that the authorities are afraid tliat the radium may be stolen; it is a ivery difficult “swag” to dispose 01. What they fear is accident; add when a piece of radium is reported missing there is consternation throughout the building. As a rule, radium is kept in a, metal plate known as an applicator the “salt” itself being sandwiched * between two layers of varnish, though at times it is also kept m tiny glass tubes. , ■ From radium three different types of radiation are emitted, each differing in penetrating power and curative property. When about to be applied to a patient the precious;mineral is made up into the neatest little parcel imaginable. It may be anything fio one to three inches square, the coverings being a metal filter, paper, lin , a rubber sheet—the last-named m turn being fastened with string. Just as a cow provides a daily supply of fresh milk, so does radium yield a fresh daily supply of curative gas. It is gathered by scientists in glass tubes, used for the same purpose as radium itself. The intrinsic value of this gas, however, bears no comparison to that of the parent substance, for while radium only loses half its power in about 1800 years, radium gas loses half its power in something under four days. In appearance what does radium look like ? Like so much table salt. And is it safe to handle ? —about as safe as striking a match in a powder factory. It is dangerous to touch it with the naked hand, and woe betide the unfortunate being on whose fingers, say, a quantity of radium is allowed to’remain five minutes or so ! The radium used for medical and other scientific purposes is generally procured from one of three places— Belgium, Austria, or the United States.' Medical men find it wonderfully effective in treating certain cases of cancer and other malignant diseases. , , . ~ The question may he asked, m the event of a- great fire, would the radium sentry have any particular cause tor alarm ? No, for not even the greatest heat has any power to destroy the power of radium, which, being the easiest thing in the world to detect, could readily be salved from a -safe, or even among the debris of a destroyed building. Curiously, enough, it is the identical rays to which radium owes its curative properties which also betray its presence.