New-York tribune. [volume], April 19, 1903, Page 6, Image 36

About New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924

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6
A WONDERFUL WOMAN AND HER HUSBAND WHO ARE JOINT DISCOVERERS OF A WONDERFUL METAL -RADIIM
PROFESSOB AND MME. CURIE AND DAUGHTER SEATED IX THEIR GARDEN
(Photograph by Hurry C Ellis, Paris.)
ably bo beaten in the vicinity of the Pouth P< le,
which is believed to be surrounded by land. No
such severe cold has been found on Arctic seas,
iven in the highest latitude reached. By un
hianned balloons Bent up last winter in Europe
a temperature of 87 below zero was recorded.
With this preface one can partially under
stand a communication recently published in
"The Monthly Weather Review" and "The Na
tional Geographic Magazine." both <>f Washing
ton. R. C. Mossman, meteorologist of the Scot
tish Antarctic expedition, now exploring the re
gion southeastward of Cape Horn, mentions
his preparations for sending up instruments
wit>, kilos, but adds: "There is some possibility
of losing a record by the freezing of the ink, as
we have not tin newly Invented ink containing
tonsol."
As to what "tonsol" is the dictionaries do not
tell. Mr. Mossman is at present inaccessible.
Leading chemists in the metropolis have never
heard <>f it; and this is the waj in which Pro
fessor Willis 1.. Moore, chief of the United
States Weather Bureau in Washington, answers
a query concerning it :
We regret th.it there has been .some delay
in making this reply, occasioned by our efforts
to ascertain, if possible, some particulars con
cerning the substance "tonsoL" The only in
formation in the possession of the Weather
Bureau concerning the particular ink mentioned
in Mr Mossman's letter ... is that con
tained in the letter itself. An Inquiry of chem
ical experts and a search for references to the
substance "tonsol" fail to develop any further
particulars. Dr. Wiley, chief chemist of the
Department of Agriculture, informs u.s that in
very < old climates it is customary to add a cer
tain portion of glyc«rol or calcium chloride to
rtiks to secure fluidity, and it i.s possible the term
•"tonsol" may be a trade name for some of these
todies.
RADIUM DISCOVERERS.
Professor and Mme. Curie Are In
deed Helpmeets.
Paris, April 10.
The most striking and interesting personages
It ill' present moment in Paris are Professor
Pierre Curie and his wife, his Invaluable co
«<ljut«.-. who have devoted the last six years of
their lives to an astonishingly brilliant series of
experiments in the extraction and isolation 01
radium, the most mysterious and most costly
metal kntwn to the scientific world. M. and
Mme. Curie have provided science with a new
and most powerful weapon. The mineral, which
ha* become the great talk of the day, was dis
covered in 1898 by If. and Mme. Curie, who,
after long and complicated chemical researches,
succeeded in extracting from a ton of the pitch
blende mineral of Joachinistal, in Bohemia, two
decigrams of radium. The operation cost over
£::.<•<•(>. which is at the rate of $10.1100 a gram,
or $10,000,000 a kilogram.
To borrow ihe definition <>f Sir William
Crook* s radium possesses the "extraordinary
proportj ■•! continuously emitting heat without
combustion, without r-hemical change of any
kitpl anit without anj rhang* 3 in its molecular
structure, which remains spectroscoplcally
Hl'ii:. 1 aftPi- many months of continuous
i,i--i. n <if heat " Radium salt emits, without
»!• \ |- r- • pi ii'i< diminutioi of its own •i ! '' i l''i'\
NEW YORK TRIBUNE ILLUSTRATED^SUPPLEMENT.
sufficient heat to melt more than its own weight j
of ice every hour. Radium en. its r,i\s of its own
which have the qualities of X rays and of
cat hod ie rays, and is as active in vacuum as in
air. Uranium and thorium throw off analogous
rays, but of an intensity a millionfold less than ;
the radium rays. The rays "i emanations from
radium penetrate through certain opaque bodies
and make impressions on sensitive films m
closed wooden boxes. For instance, if a coin or
a key or other object be placed in a leather
purse and the purse put ii 'he dark on a sensi
tive plate, and a little radium be placed near at -
hand, it will be found that the development of
the plate will produi c photographs of the coin or
key, just as is the case with the Rontgen rays.
The radiations of radium rea< I chemically upon
certain bodies; for instance, they transform
oxygen into ozone, and they change the colors of
glass or porcelain t.. dark violet or brown.
Another extraordinary property of radium is i
to throw off rays not only of heat, but of light ,
like those of the plow worm or firefly. Indeed, j
th*» li^ht rays of radium are so powerful that it
has been suggested liy French scientists that in
this mysterious metal may some day lie found a
means of lighting cities without loss of energy
or waste of force. The rays >•: radium dash and
explode like minute artillery projectiles upon
sensitive surfaces, and '.heir phosphorescent
properties are astounding. The most puzzling
property of radium is that, as far as has yet
been ascertained, it.- properties of emit) heat
and light are inexhaustible. The great Mys
tery is how and where the ambient forces
needed to produce heat and light are absorbed
by radium. According to the laws of the con
servat'on and correlation of forces, heat, light
end motion are convertible, and neither Profes
«or nor Mine. Curie, nor Sit William Crookes,
nor any of the scientists of France. England or
Germany who have followed in Professor Curie's
footsteps, have yet been able to prove that the
incessant continuity in the emission of rays of
light and heat from radium causes any exhaus
tion, expenditure or diminution of the prop
PROFESSOR AND MMI CURIE AND DAUGHTER.
AViilking in their garden in front of their little cottage at inilly. Fr?n.«»
(Photograph by Harry C. Ellis, Parls.J
erties bo mysteriously stored In apparently fcj,
finite quantities in tail extraordinary metal.
Radium, rr»>r'- has startling effects cpai
the nervous centres of hum;;n being?) and ..-,!nf
animal.". A glass tube containing one or fsij
milligrams of radium \*h'-r. carried f n tha
waistcoat pocket causes a painful wound in tile
flesh that will require six month- Jo heal. A
glass tut"'- containing a few mfllisrrairs «»
radium when introduced beneath the skin «s? a
mouse near the vertebral column produced «!»at&
by paralysis in three hour*. Tut^s of r^uia
placed in contact with the back of the nerks ef
guinea pigs kill or paralyze the animals ta a
few hours, according to th« length »,f *jpo<rir»
to its fatal radiations. M Curie say? that d^ari
to man would probably ensue upon '•nfrin? a
room containing a pound of radium, liaf'mm is,
indeed, an unknown quantity. F^nh we***
brings to light startling addition to its mjs
terious properties, which, as far as i* ;-»-t known,
emanate and originate in itself, and • nu-e sci
entists to ask the rjuestiosi. "Can it >••■• (XMtsltli
that Professor and Mn»*\ Curie have i<. r.i.ttas!
discovered perpetual motion?"
Professor Pierre Curie, whom it ha.s be«-n my
good fortune to meet on several «>• ■ a?:or.s, bod
at his little cottage, near tlentniy, and In xtt
laboratories of the >'orbonr.<>, v. her- h* work*. ;j
a man of impressive individuality. Th<-re is
Irresistible, fascination in he soft bat pene
trating gTance Oi bis large hazel whicll
seem to emit rays of intelligence akin to those
of the mysterious metal which he and his tal
ented wife have di?:overed. M. Curi-i is forty
years old, tall and well formed. He <ir«rS3e3
with the artistic negligence that is often char
acteristic of men of genius. His beard and hair
are luxuriant, and his placid e.xpr-.5.-;kn of
beatitude, together with the pure antique lines
of his head and face, suggest the portraits oJ
Christ as depicted in the paintings of Albert
Diirer. Professor Curi^ disdains worldrj mat
ters and lives high up in th-i clouds, rapt is
the <•':• • of his mystic radium.
He and hLs wife are by no mear.s in ,;f!2j*r.t
circumstances. Th'-y live in a small • ottage
with a green lawn and fruit tr^es in the most
inaccessible southern district of Paris, over
looking the fortifications, far away from the
I^itin Quarter, and also a long distance froa
the. intellectual and fashionable centra of tie
capital. Professor Curie is an early riser. At i
o'clock in the morning, ufrer having given hi 3
little daughter a lesson ta arithmetic, h^ jurr.fa
on his hieyele and pedals briskly thre* miles to
the l;\borator>' of the Sorbonr.^. in the Ku*
Cuvier, near the Jardin dcs Plant-<, <>.- to t!:«
laboratory of the Kcole de Physi-iue. i:i th« Rue
T-honiand, behind the Pantheon. It was -.;, the
Fatter laboratory' that Profet^.jr Curie ft- M le
fore me a small glass test tub- containing a
gra>lsb white powder resemi'lhig table <a!r, and
said. "You see. this is radium:' The pri.fVssflr,
:o illustrate the fact that carrying radiurr. about
produces flesh burns or wounds, good nat ;r<"«li7
bared his left arm arid showed me a d^*p *"unJ
that had been four months healing-.
The professor i- extremely fond of hi* little
cottage, with lawn and fruit trf-e= and ki?> h»S
garden. It was in his little garden that '•.- re
ceived me last Sunday, and presented me to his