NEW BRITISH INDUSTRY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 135, 4 December 1909, Page 13

NEW BRITISH INDUSTRY.

A RADIUM FACTORY. The East-end of London is to be the repository pi untold wealth (states the Chronicle of 15th October). To-morrow, in Thomas-street, Limehouse, the foundation-stone of a radium factory will be laid. It will be the first factory of its kind to be established in this country ; and, as marking the inauguration of a new British industry whose possibilities cannot be foreseen, the occasion will be of peculiar interest. The erection of the factory is a'sequel to the disvovery of valuable deposits of pitch-blende .ore, from which radium is extracted, at the Trenwith mine of the St. Ives Consolidated Mines Company. Mr. Francis Fox, a director of the company, quickly recognised tho possibilities of these deposits as a source of radium supply, and lost no time in consulting Sir William Ramsay. Tha-t was two years ago. The present price of radium is stated to be £500,000 an ounce. We understand that Sir William Ramsay is of opinion that it will be possible to produce about one-third of an ounce at the Limehouse factory in the course of a year. What effect the systematic manufacture of radium in England will have upon the price of the precious commodity it is difficult to, say. The general public will, however, benefit, inasmuch as^ it is the intention of the Radium Corporation to favour hospitals and other institutions who will ilse the substance for curative purposes.