AUTOMATIC DEVICE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 26, 10 November 1936, Page 10

AUTOMATIC DEVICE

PROTECTING RADIUM USERS. An invention for protecting surgeons and" operators from radium .rays has been installed at Westminster Hospital's radium annexe at Hampstead, says the “Daily Telegraph.” Four grammes of radium, tlie estimated value of which is £30,000 to £40,000, are now at the annexe, and two “bombs,” incorporating new ideas in construction and manipulation, are in use night and day, five days a week. Owing to the combined power of these four grammes, and the necessity of restricting any near approach by surgeons and nurses, an entirely new method of automatic electric control has been devised. By this new control, the radium, in its container, can he lifted from a leaden safe into whichever of tlio two bombs is required, and swung into position over the patient. By reversing the action, the radium can be returned to the safe, and then transferred to the second bomb. All the necessary movements are controlled by the operator from a switchboard 14ft. away from the patient’s couch. It is necessary for the operator to approach tho loaded bomb only when it is about to enter an applicator strapped to the patient. He is then able, with a quick movement of tho hand, to ensure that the bomb is properly in place. Each bomb weighs 681 b loaded. They differ in aperture size; the smaller one has a platinum collar, valued at £225, to prevent “scattering” of rays. The safe, from which the radium in its container is taken, is ai stout, bottle-shaped hollow mass of lead, weighing 300 cwt. AVithiii it is a small motor, operated from the switchboard, which lifts tho container into position, and pushes it into the heart of tho bomb.

The new installation, which has required months of experimental construction in which many electrical difficulties have been overcome, and tho use of expensive metals and special tools, has cost nearly £BOO. The arrangement of the radium in the container and the general physics of the apparatus is the work of Dr. H. T. Flint and Dr. AVilson, respectively physicist and assistant physicist to tho hospital. The design and construction wore in the hands of Mr F. R. Carling, formerly technical adviser for radium work, and of Mr D. It. Carling.