222 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



tion the radium becomes concentrated in the residues. These resi- 

 dues, accumulated since the beo:innin<r of the uranium industrj', were 

 the first source of radium. The mine was owned by the Austrian 

 Government. In order to have a monopoly in the manufacture and 

 sale of radium, the export of the mineral was prohibited. A radium 

 institute was founded in Vienna for the development of the applica 

 tions of radium. 



Attention everywhere was directed to the known veins of urani- 

 ferous minerals: those of autunite in Portugal, of pitchblende in 

 England, in the Cornouailles, in Schneeberg, and Johanngeorgen- 

 stadt, in Saxony. At the same time, search was instituted for new 

 veins. Subsecjucntly pitchblende was found in the United States 

 of America, in Mexico, and in the Indies, where it was exploited for 

 a short time. 



The most important find was that of a very rich vein of carnotite 

 in the United States, extending in a mountainous and wild tract 

 through the States of Colorado and Utah. Influential American en- 

 terprises, despite the small content of radium in the mineral, did not 

 hesitate to establish, in those desert regions, roads and works with 

 companies of workmen for exploitation because of the immense 

 extent of the veins. 



The project was so successful that in 1912, 1,200 tons of carnotite, 

 containing 8 to 9 grams of radium, left the United States for France 

 where a radium manufactory had been established in competition 

 with the Austrian works. From this time on, the exploitation of 

 the mines developed rapidly, and at the same time works for the 

 refinement of the radium were established in America, so that 10.5 

 grams of radium were produced in 1913 and 22.4 grams in the fol- 

 lowing year. The exj^ortation of carnotite to Europe continued up 

 to the outbreak of the World War in 1914. In 1913 and 1914 the 

 amount of mineral exported each year corresponded to 7 or 8 grams, 

 of radium. At the beginning of 1914 the American Government 

 started measures to monopolize their radium. All the radium mines 

 found in the United States before January 15, 1914, remained the 

 property of their proprietors; but after that all discovered would be 

 the property of the Government. The prospectors had the right of 

 exploiting the mines they discovered but the mineral must be fur- 

 nished to the American Government at a price which would be fixed 

 from time to time by their Department of the Interior. The Ameri- 

 can Government established works for the extraction of the precious 

 element. At about the same time the National Radium Institute was 

 founded. It entered into collaboration with the companies estab- 

 lished before the decree of 1914, the Standard Chemical Co., the 

 American Radium Co., and the Schlesinger Radium Co., all located 

 at Denver, Colo., or near by. 



