RADIUM FACTORY FOR LONDON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

RADIUM FACTORY FOR LONDON.

1 Lady Ramsay, the wife of the distinguished scientist, Sir William Ramsay, recently laid the foundation-stone of the first facI tory institute 1 , in. England for the manufacture of sodium on a commercial basis. The Mtf&jhliv'fi'd 1"!' Ihe new building is Thomafl;sPJ|||s; Limehouse. When completed tnawactory Mill be a large onestoreyed structure, equipped with all the interesting laboratories which are necessary for the extraction of radium from pitchblend ore, which is ironed at- the Tronwith mine*, of the St. Ives Consolidated Mines Company and the British Radium Corporation. , This new factory ha* been ere* ted in order tMobyjate the necessity of sending the pitchblende ore to France or Germany has been invented by Sir William Ramfor treatment, as is done at present, and with the secret process of extraction, which say. the period of manufacture of radium will, it is estimated, be reduced from nine mogihs to six or seven weeks. JSpl romance of indium is one of the mdffrf enthralling in scientific annals. It owes its discovery to a woman, Madame Sklodowska Curie, ami very few people have ever handled the pure metal—hundreds of times more precious than gold. [ Its price is a purely fanciful one, and different authorities quote it as being anything from £100,000 to £500,000 an ounce ; but".it,. is doubtful if there is that amount in the world.' Apart from its value as a curative agent, it has propertied that the olJlfcfcltihemiste would have given their right hands to have been able to utilise. Sir* William Ramsay has shown that radium emanations could be used to change one element into another, and a French scientist, Professor Bowlas, has changed practically 'worthless' cornndume into precious stones." ' ' ;