How Marie Curie Found Radium (1921)
Gave it all to science
Published on April 19, 1921 — The Madison Daily Leader (Madison, S.D.)
When Madame Marie Curie arrives here from Paris next May, says a New York dispatch, she may be presented by the women of America, as has already been announced, with a tube containing one gramme of radium–– the radioactive element Madame Curie discovered and gave to the world in 1898.
The reason for this gift is the fact that although Madame Curie knows more concerning radium and its potentialities than any living soul, she has not, because of her generosity, one grain with which to conduct experiments and research work, which will mean so much to the world at large. The gramme, which will cost $100,000, can be contained in a small thimble, and there will be considerable room to spare.
Dr. Robert Abbe, the noted surgeon of New York, is aiding the Mme. Curie Radium Committee in its effort to gather the necessary fund. He was the pioneer in the use of radium in this country, and is one of the few scientists who has worked side by side with Mme. Curie in Paris. She has frequently expressed the highest regard for him.
Dr. Abbe has written for medical history a book entitled “Mme. Curie,” the manuscript of which was recently completed. The surgeon has given to The New York Times an excerpt from one of the chapters of this work, which throws much interesting light on Mme. Curie’s discovery of radium.
Important Discovery.
“No woman engaged in purely scientific work,” says Dr. Abbe, “has ever been accorded honor for accomplishing a discovery so important to the world and to science as Mme. Curie has been for her discovery of radium.
“Other women have been credited with deeper and wider scientific knowledge; other women have sat upon thrones, and, with royal privileges, have made history, but no other woman, but sheer force of energy and brain power, has pursued a trail into an unknown jungle, and brought to light such an unsuspected new factor in the world’s make up, which has had such revolutionary influence in science.
“No one can say that she stumbled on this by chance. There existed, first of all, a complete education in chemistry and physics, without which the first step could not have been taken. Secondly, the energy, the dominating will, the zeal in pursuit, the indefatigable working power, the self-sacrificing bravery — the same forces which made it possible for Peary to reach the North Pole––carried this explorer into unknown wilderness.
“We witness, in Mme. Curie’s research, one of the most complete pieces of detective work that ever unearthed a hidden mystery.
“She who has given it away freely has none, and can get none to pursue further discovery. Every year a new chapter has to be written about it.
“A still more wonderful chapter is unrevealed, and it is the privilege of the women of this country to choose this time to lay this tribute at her feet — a gift of radium, instead of a wreath of laurel — with which she can, and will, give back to them a thousand fold more in value, a hoped-for revelation of its medical power, when its forces can be tamed and used in cancer — that dread scourge. She has now turned her thoughts to that line of research.
Led Simple Life.
“The story of Mme. Curie’s life is as simple as that of thousands of other workers in the same field. Nevertheless, we will see that essential features were a preliminary training in self-denying home life, ideally simple, her father being the Professor in Physics and Chemistry in the University of Warsaw.
“The magnetic pull of the renowned Paris schools, where science had its purest atmosphere of research, brought her, with scores of others, from many countries, to the University of Paris. There she was welcome, as an ardent student, and for two years she lived as all students do, on the merest necessities of life in the Latin Quarter. Fired by the spirit of work, she was welcomed by Professor Becquerel in the Department of Physics, and by Professor Curie in chemistry, as a clear mind and a gifted student. The former permitted her assistance in the problem of uranium research to see if that metal would shine when brought into a dark room, and, if it did, would that light act like the newly discovered X-ray, which had the power to pass through thick light-proof paper?
“An experiment was prepared with a photographic plate enclosed in a black envelope on which a piece of uranium was laid. While waiting for a sunny day this plate was laid in a dark drawer. A fortnight of dull Paris days passed. It was thought wise to test the freshness of the plate by developing it. To the surprise of all, a dark spot appeared on it beneath where the mineral had rested.
“In a word, some unsuspected rays had gone through the black paper. This was the startling beginning of the discovery. Becquerel rays became the new wonder. By delicate tests they were proved to be electrical.
“Then began the pursuit. All joined in it. Every form of uranium in laboratories was tested.
“Mme. Curie took the next great step — the deciding step. She went to the mines near Carlsbad, where the mineral pitchblende had been mined for a century for the extraction of uranium. She examined the refuse, of which fifty tons had accumulated in years past.
“Pitchblende had always been known in laboratories of Europe as a composite ore containing a mixture of a dozen different metals beside the uranium for which it seemed alone worth mining, such as lead, silver, tin, bismuth, etc.
“To her surprise, Mme. Curie found the refuse was much stronger in Becquerel rays than the uranium which had been extracted. This startling fact then stared her in the face, that something unknown existed in the refuse.
“By chemical processes she proceeded to dissolve out first the lead, then the tin, then silver, and so on until as the residual mass became purer it became stronger and stronger, sixty times stronger than uranium.
“This small remnant glowed in the dark. All but two metals had been eliminated. These were known not to have the slightest radioactivity. Therefore there could be but one conclusion — she was facing a mysterious new force. The excitement ran high as the months went by.
“Finally, after two years, she was able by ultra-chemical resources, with the help of her teachers and Professor Curie (who, meanwhile, had offered himself and had been accepted in marriage), to announce to the world (1898) the discovery of a new element — radium.
“It was her beautiful tribute to science that an impersonal name — radium — was given, because it gave out rays. Knowledge, and not fame, was her pursuit. In contrast to her unselfish zeal, the Austrian owners of the mine would give her only one-fifth of the refuse which she desired for further study. The rest, they found, had a new commercial value, owing to her research, and they kept it for profit and study. She, on the other had, industriously extracted all the radium from her small store, and after a year, believing the physical qualities were now understood, offered it to the medical world, not only in Paris, but to us.
Supply Soon Exhausted.
“In 1903 she released it and we were able to purchase the first morsel for New York. It is interesting to record that, when a second order was cabled to her for more it was withheld for two months, until she had finished some calorimetric tests. Then she released all she had for scientists to use. A quarter or more of that historic bit, which proved that radium gives out heat continuously, came quickly to New York.
“Her small store of Austrian refuse, however, was quickly exhausted and all the radium to be had in the world was for some time made in Germany. That, also, we could buy, but at a much larger price.
“Miners everywhere in the world then searched for this new precious metal. It was not difficult to discover for by placing photographic plates in black paper envelopes and leaving them in any mine, if the plate developed black, it meant radium. Some small quantities were found in Portugal, in Colorado, in Utah, and in one or two other places.
“The quantity available in the world is insignificant. Its extraction is by elaborate and delicate chemical refinement, consuming at least six months before the atoms can be separated. In more than 500 tons of rough ore one cannot get more than a quarter of a thimbleful — hence its cost. Meantime Mme. Curie and her collaborators have found new and startling qualities in this precious metal.
“The credit for this discovery was settled incontestably by a commission giving Mme. Curie the Nobel Prize in 1903.”
