URANIUM

Grey River Argus, 2 March 1908, Page 4

URANIUM

As long ago as 1759 Klaproth, a great chemist, succeeded in isolating frpm the dark-coloured mineral called pitch-blende a yellow substance which he pronounced to be the oxide of a new metal. He called it uranium, after the planet Uranus, then recently discovered by Herschel.. It- remained for a long* time exceedingly rare, so much so, that even a hundred years later its reputed price was £2400 a ton It was found, however, to form a number of beautiful yellow salts, .and in spite of the'difficulty in obtaining it it was used to some extent to give a delicate golden and greenish yellow tint to glass. The mineral was found in various places, particularly in Saxony and Bohemia, and its centenary ■was marked by the discovery in Cornwall of what was then the only known lode in iiHe world. This ore a true fissure lode, contained some 12 per cent of the pure metal. Several tons •were raised from this source. Tho metal was prepared as a black powder by reduction wfth sodium ; and later in a mass by heating the oxide with carbon in the electric furnace. It is of a silver-Avhite colour, softer than steel, but having a melting point high er than that of platinum. * Pitchblende, its prdcipal arc, now become famous as the parent of racVium is a mixd oxide of arunium.. Finally it possesses the distinction of having the highest atomic weight of any element yet known.