WORLD'S SUPPLY OF RADIUM

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 19

WORLD'S SUPPLY OF RADIUM

Not long ago fears were expressed lest the world's eupply of radium should soon give out, so there will bo rejoicings over the discovery of rich deposits of radioactive ore in the Belgian Congo, rich enough to cause a drop in price' from about £1600 a grain" to just over £900, cays a. correspondent in the "Manchester Guardian." Sir Ernest Rutherford stated in a lecture at the Royal Institute last year that in the 26 years which had elapsed sinoe the discovery of radio-activity some 160 grammes had been produced, the value being in the. neighbourhood of £4,000,000. Large quantities were used during the war, and the bulk of the total production is still in use in various hospitals throughout the world. Scientists investigating radium and its power to effect the destruction of the atom and the transmutation of metals have only .five or cix grammes in their joint possession. Nowadays, accord.ing to Sir Ernest, most of the freeh supplies of radium are extracted .from the mineral known as carnotite; 5000 tons of this ore had to be ■r.and-j>ickod and sorted down to 500 tons, whicn whe& treated gave out about one gramme of radium. I£ the amount of ore treated were represented by the distance between London and Edinburgh, the quantity of radium produced therefrom would be represented by four inches. Seeing that radium is so precious, it is well that buyers are thoroughly safeguarded against short measure. By means of a specially delicate electroscope the amount of radium present in a tube can be measured to a two-hnudredth part of a gramme' without opening the tube.