RADIUM.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5219, 8 March 1904, Page 6

RADIUM.

SIXTY GRAINS IN WELLINGTON, ITS MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES. Less than four years ago Mdiue. Sklowdiowski Ourio, of tho Municipal School of Physics, Paris, made known to the world tho discovery of a new mineral substance, to which the naum vadium was given. Between then and now tho literaturo that has heeh written about this wonderful substance would fill volumes upon volumes; yet it is averred that not a fraction of its attributes or properties, medicinally or otherwise, has yet been discovered. It is. therefore, , inoro than interesting to the public to know that for soma time past the Messrs Earp-Thoums, dentists, of Wellington and tho Thames, have had in their possession some sixtygrains of tlio precious stuff, which, in now in tho safe keeping of their bankers in this city. . . •

Mr G. H. Earp-Thomas was waited upon by a mombejr of the “ Times " staff at tho Empire Hotel lost evening, and was afforded am exhibition of tha radium in bis possession. The substance, which is contained in an her-metically-sealed glass tube, resembles in appearance rather coarse Fuller’s earth. Taken into a perfectly dark room, tho little tube, showed out in tho intense blackness like an elongated glow-worm or a pencil dipped in phosphorus. Strange to say, the longer it was so watched 1 tho brighter it grow, until tho glow showed up faintly the fingers holding tho little tube, and Mr Earp-Thomaa. who was holding it, declared that the bones of . bis fingers wore beginning to ache through tha notion of the unknown force of the in-significaait-loolting gray powder. No boat was apparent upon holding tho tube in tho hand, hub Mr Thomas saya that tho tomporaturo of tho exterior; of tho tubo is about two degrees abovd normal.

Ais to how it was obtained, Mr Karp* Thomas said, that his brother, Mr IL W. Earp-Thomas, now at the Thames, was in Paris when tho famous _ die* covory was mad© public, and on his re-* turn to tho colony ho and his brother decided to write to Mdm-e. Curio fori some radium, and tho small tube in question came to hand by the next mad. At that time—over three years ago—tho discoverer was under the impression that, having made so much, that the rest was easy, and quantities would be manufactured in a short spaoo of time. The gifted lady very soon discovered that tho radiifm was not so easily manufactured, and that enormous quantities of radium quartz had to bo treated to obtain an infinitesimal spook of the precious matter. Why elm did not know this at tho time is a matter for conjecture in tho light of its present scarcity. Mr 'Earp-Thomas wag rather disgusted at the small quantity forwarded, and wrote to Paris to say so, bub was rather staggered on* being informed per return - mail that that which ho had cost £IOOO to manufacture.

. Tho owner states that by exposing the tube to the light—either natural or artificial —the phosphorescent power ia diminished when taken into the dark, but by nursing it in the dark it soon regains its average luminousness. He has also discovered that by placing the tribe upon the face when lying down, tha mysterious energy causes sleep, but on awaking from such a sleep he was troubled with intense pains in the head and face. On medic:*! ho desisted from wooing Morpheus in that fun* canny manner. To fully appreciate tho potency oi radium as a light producer, it has to be seen in a spintharescope—the new zinolined instrument in which the grain of radium is held poised oa'a steel point. By looking through the microscopic lena of this instrument one can see myriads of sparks flying from the radium to the zino sides of tho instrument, without in any way diminishing in size' or energy tho speck of radium in use. Mr EarpThomas is making inquiries for one of these instruments for the benefit of hia own studies and of any persons interest-

qd. Perhaps tho most wonderful field fotf the application of tho properties of radium is that of medicine. It has already been declared an infallible cure for lupus, and is hailed as a positive cure for perhaps the most dreaded of. a] I malignant growths—cancer. Even if it only-does this, the discovery of radium will rank as ono of the greatest over made, but it does not stop there. It has been said that ono day radipm will become tho greatest of all ilhnninants —a cold, safe light, that will 'relieve the City Council and theatre proprietors of a vast amount of worry, for it can he dropped into gunpowder, and will glow •amongst that dsadfy explosive as innocently as it did' in the Empire Hotel last evening. It is reported that the price of radium at present is £40.000 per ounce. A quotation recently received from a big wholesale firm of druggists in London by a Xcw Zealand firm was £25.000 per ounce, and the Messrs Itlarp-Thomaa have had an offer of £-1000 for their tiny store —and do not feel like sidling. ,Radbnn buttons wore recently introduced into the colonv. and these contained but one tiny grain of radium that took the best part of an hour to discover in the dark. These were being sold for sixteen eir'ncas wholesale.

The Messrs Farp-Tbomss. who deserve their good V.tck for their enterprise, ara the holders ef the largest quantity of radium south of the equator®