THE VALUE OF RADIUM

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1929, Page 15

THE VALUE OF RADIUM

CONT IN UOIJS-RUNNIN G ENGINE. “It may be wondered why such im- ; portanee should be attached .’.to the emanation from radium element ■ when tho most scrupulous care is taken to :■ screen off its peculiar- rays, which eon- -,t sist of atomic particles or electrons, leaving only tho gamma radiation, which so closely resembles well-screened hard X-rays that little if any difference has been detected between the action of the one and the other,” says the Lancet. “Why pay millions for extracting a H few grammes of radium from tons of foreign ore when thexr effect can bo closely simulated by electric means when the high-tension apparatus has been brought to the necessary pitch of perfection? The reply is a simple one. The shorter the wave the greater the pens- ; trating power. The gamma rays from i; radium have about a quarter the wave- -j length of the hardest rxys yet produced, and the apparatus designed to - produce the latter is not only very costly but undergoes rapid deterioration in use.

“To bring this artificial radiation up to the potency of the gamma radiation from radium would require apparatus which, if it were not beyond the wit of the electro-technician to make, would j in the course of a few years cost at j. least as much in. upkeep and replacement as the corresponding amount of radium element. For, incredible as it ■ may appear to anyone except the' hard- ; ened physicist, radium element can, be ' employed for years without sensible loss. , ; In 20 years the deterioratioxx is only 0.7 pex- cent.; radiunx is, in fact, an engine running continuously without working costs.”