LOST IN BLIZZARD

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1929, Page 18

LOST IN BLIZZARD

£lOOO WORTH OF RADIUM. Members of the”. Royal Canadian Mounted Police have had many thrilling and. strange tasks to perform, but perhaps. none has been as odd as the task that has recently confronted them. During a raging blizzard a Saskatoon X-ray’ and therapy expert, Dr. E. E. Sheuley, lost 50 milligrams of the world’s most precious substance —radium. The valuable mineral was contained in a tiny red rubber tube IJin. long by a quarter of an inch wide. It was worth £lOOO. ‘ . In the course of the doctor’s calls the

tube slipped out of his motor car and buried itself in the snowdrift. A search was started immediately and police, University of Saskatchewan scientists, insurance company representatives and citizens took part. For three days tho hunt was carried on under the direction of Dr. E. L. Harrington, head of the physics department at the local university. A specially designed electroscope, capjable of detecting radium within a radius of four yards, was carried close to the i deep snow drifts. A microscope to watch for the movements of the frail gold leaf by which the electroscope tells its story was also used, but to no avail. The party covered a good part of the city in the search, often wading through snow drifts sev- , eral feet deep. ' .. . .

I The aid of the public was solicited. A i reward was offered and dummy dupli- , cates of the missing . tube of radium , were thrown on the screens of local 1 cinemas. Other dummies were shown s in stores and theatres throughout ths i city. ; The organised hunt was subsequently - postponed until the huge snow drifts melt, two weeks at the least with con tinned warin weather. i ! "" ■'