RADIUM BROMIDE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 96, 18 December 1912, Page 8

RADIUM BROMIDE.

AX AUSTRALIAN'S ACHIEYE-

MENTS

Recontly (states the Sydney ‘Daily Telegraph’) tlie directors of the Radium Hill Co. paid a visit of inspection to the company’s treatment works at Woolwich (Parramatta River), the occasion being the first production of pure radium bromide in the Southern Hemisphere. That the radium produced by the company was the pure article was certified to by Professor Pollock, of the Sydney University.

The announcement was received with cheers by those present, who heartily congratulated Mr. S. Radcliff, the chemist of the company, who, after years of toiling against almost overwhelming difficulties, has at last had his efforts crowned with success.

Mr. Radcliff briefly explained the processes to which the crude concentrates are subjected before the finished bromide is produced, emphasising the fact that the process is one of elimination, until the finished product represents one part as against 100,000,000 parts of the crude material. The infinitesimal percentage of the pure article, however, das better realise-dr when it was remembered that radium bromide such as that tin company was now able to produce was

valued at £IOOO per grain, as against 2d per grain for pure gold. With the present plant he esimated that £OOC worth of radium could be produced weekly.

An inspection was, then made of the works, Mr. Radcliff explaining, item by item, tho 38 processes which tin material undergoes before reaching lie crystalising room, where nine fur flier evolutions in crystalisation art rone through, each form of crystal in :urn being treated until it becomes soluble and ready to discharge furthei crystals, until finally a mass of crystals is reduced in size to a pink, point. This latter particle is then :aken to the chemist’s laboratory, and iftcr sundry weird gyrations through. :est tubes, rotors, and crucibles, emerges as a tiny white speck scarcely visible by daylight, hut which in pitch larknoss gives off rays which penetrate through eight half-crowns as oas fly as if they were one thin sheet ol tissue paper.