TWENTY-ONE NEW RADIUM NEEDLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19108, 28 June 1930, Page 11

TWENTY-ONE NEW RADIUM NEEDLES.

HOSPITAL RECEIVES A DISTINCT ACQUISITION.

Dr P. Clennell Fenwick, head of the radium department at the Christchurch Hospital, yesterday received, on behalf of the department, twenty-one new radium needles, each valued at more than £l7. The needles, each of which contains one milligram of the radium element surrounded by platinum, have been given to the hospital under the Travis Bequest. Speaking to a reporter to-day, Dr Fenwick said that the needles were a great acquisition to the radium department at the hospital. Their value was over £377, but they are, according to Dr Fenwick, worth millions to the department, and will greatly add to its efficiency. Dr Fenwick expressed the department’s indebtedness to the trustees of the Travis Bequest for so fine a gift. Packed inside a leaden pipe within a stout, woodn box, the needles were opened by Dr Fenwick and carefully checked. They come from Oolens, Belgium, and have been tested by Mme Curie at the Radium Laboratory, of Brussels. Including the exchange, the total value of the package was £377. It was fully insured. The new needles are made to Dr Fenwick’s own design. They are both longer and broader than those now in use at the hospital. The purpose of the new design. Dr Fenwick explained to a reporter, was to shield the softer rays and allow only the hardest rays to escape. k