Marvels of Modern Science

querel-Work of the

ous Energy-V

more puzzling and still continues a puzzle to a great degree to the present time. Studying the action of the salts of a rare and very heavy mineral called uranium Becquerel observed that their substances give off an invisible radiation which, like the Roent

te directly beneath the uranium just as Becquerel had expected. From this it appeared evident that rays of some kind were being produced that were capable of passing through black paper. Since the X-rays were then the only ones known to possess the power to penetrate opaque substances it seemed as though the problem of producing X-rays by sunlight was solved. Then came the fortunate accident. After several plates had been prepared for exposure to sunlight a severe storm arose and the experiments had to be abandoned for the time being. At the end of several days work was again resumed, but the plates had been lying so long in the darkroom that they were deemed almost v

However, Becquerel's fortunate accident of the plate developing was the beginning of the long series of experiments which led

le fact that there was some agent present more strongly radio-active than the metal uranium itself. She set herself the task of finding out this agent and in conjunction with her husband, Professor Pierre Curie, made many tests and experiments. Finally in the ore of pitchblende they found n

the name Polonium. To that which accompanied barium taken from the same ore they called Radium and to

n conjunction with Professor Debierne she treated a decegramme of bromide of radium by electrolytic process, getting an amalgam from which was extracted the metallic radium by distillation.] All that has been obtained is some one of its simpler salts or compounds and until recently even these had not been prepared in pure form. The c

m it costs $5,000 a grain and could a pound be obtaine

adium becomes radio-active and retains such activity for a considerable time after being removed. Even the human body takes on this excited activity

nor apparently any microscopic or chemical change in the original body. Professor Becquerel has stated that if a square centimeter

tal principles of modern science, the universe contains a certain definite provision of energy which can appear under various forms, but which cannot be increased. According to Sir Oliver Lodge every cubic millimeter of ether contains as much ener

primary and indivisible we find it a very complex affair, a kind of miniature solar system, the centre of a varied attraction of molecules, corpuscles and electrons. Had we held to the atomic theo

is a powerfully radio-active substance. The Alpha rays constitute ninety-nine per cent, of all the rays and consist of positively electrified particles. Under the infl

le cathode rays produced by an electrical discharge inside of a highly exhausted vacuum tube but work at a much higher velocity; they can be readily deflec

llion times more powerf

any curious

screen the action is slower, but it still takes place even through thick folds, therefore, radiographs can be taken and in this way i

. If the glass has a weak spot, a scratch say, an electric spark is produced a

ch an amount of heat that to every single gram there is an emission of one hundred calor

dium has always a temperature higher b

dio-activity in part leaves the solution and distributes itself thro

per, giving them a violet tinge, changes white phosphorous into yello

the treatment of certain skin diseases, in cancer, etc. However it can have very baneful effects on animal organisms. It has produced paralysis and death in dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, guinea-pigs and other animals, and undoubtedly it might affec

ertain forms of life, such as larvae, so that they do not pass into the ch

e to fall out, but on the contrary at the same

e hands and other portions of the bo

through many inches of the hardest steel. On a comparatively short exp

but little light, its luminosity being largely due to the stimulation o

. It is an infallible test of the genuineness of the diamond. The genuine diamond phosphores

um, viz., polonium and actinium. Polonium, so-called, in honor of the native land of Mme. Curie, is just as active as radium when first extracted from the pit

ium carbonate and solution in dilute sulphuric acid, contains the radium along with other metals, and is boiled with concentrated sodium carbonate solution, and the solution of the residue in hy

nde residue after processes continued for about three months during whic

in its metallic or pure state and most of the compounds are impure

lligrams are required at least and the banks let out the amount for ab