What is radium?

A million dollars buys about two ounces of radium   and after about 1600 years, one ounce will disappear. Radium gives off piercing rays which are so dangerous to human flesh that it must be kept in a sturdy lead box. Yet trained experts can control and use this very same radium to treat diseases. A large supply of radium rates as one of the most valuable treasures of a modern hospital   yet a hundred years ago, no one knew it existed.

There has always been radium in the earth   a few atoms and a few traces here and there mixed with the rocky minerals. Yet it was not found until about 60 years ago. The discovery of radium actually started the atomic age, for bit by bit it taught the world of science about radioactivity. Radium is a radioactive substance. Every second, a fixed number of its atoms break apart into atoms of something else. As this happens, the radium gives off radioactive energy.

Pure radium is a heavy, silver white metal. As its atoms break arart at a fixed rate, tiny bullets stream forth with high speed energy. These dangerous rays can pierce paper, wood, flesh and sheets of thin metal. For safety, a supply of radium is imprisoned in a box of thick lead. Other rays, somewhat like X rays, stream forth along with heat and light. An ounce of radium is warm enough to melt one and a half ounces of ice in an hour and it shines in the dark with an eerie glow,

We never find lumps of pure radium in nature. It must be separated from mineral ores such as uranium and pitchblende. Uranium is the radio active mineral our up to date prospectors seek on the prairies of Colorado. Pitchblende is a steely looking mineral and the richest deposits are in the Congo of Africa.

One ton of the richest pitchblende yields about half a ton of uranium but the separating job is difficult and costly. However, in 90 tons of the uranium., there is only one little pound of precious radium, Radium is rare and very hard to separate from its ores, which explains why it cost around $500,000 an ounce. The radium used by hospitals to treat patients is usually   in the form of radium salts and you might mistake the high powered material for ordinary table salt.

The radioactive decay of radium happens at a fixed rate which cannot be slowed down or hurried. Every second, so many atoms break down and no more, In 1600 years, about half a supply of radium has gone. We say that radium has a half life of 1600 years because the remaining supply is reduced to half every 1600 years.