rEBKTJABT 19, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



285 



bers were asked to consider the present posi- 

 tion. The two following resolutions were car- 

 ried: (1) That the congress be not held in 

 1915 ; (2) that the present executive committee 

 continue to act so long as necessary. The 

 committee was strongly of opinion that a 

 meeting of the congress in London should not 

 be abandoned, and the suggestion was made 

 that it might take place at the next quinquen- 

 nium, in 1920. But it w'as agreed that nothing 

 definite could be settled at the present time, 

 and the following resolution was passed: 

 "That the executive committee be authorized 

 to convoke a meeting of the general com- 

 mittee at some future date to consider the date 

 of the congress." It was also decided that in 

 the meantime the general conmiittee be called 

 together once a year. 



The year 1914 was an eventful one in the 

 industry of mining radium, uranium and 

 vanadium ores and had by far the largest 

 year's production yet made. Figures collected 

 by Frank L. Hess, of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey, indicate that the output 

 amounted to about 4,300 short tons of dry ore 

 carrying 8Y tons of uranium oxide and 22.4 

 grams of metallic radium. The ore was valued 

 at about $445,000. The ore produced in 1913 

 contained 41 tons of uranium oxide and 10.5 

 grams of radium, and that produced in 1912 

 contained 26 tons of uranium oxide and 6.Y 

 grams of radium. About nine tenths of the 

 contained radium is thought to be recoverable 

 under improved processes. Although carno- 

 tite, a mineral of these rare metals, contains 

 three times as much uranium oxide as vana- 

 dium oxide, the Colorado and Utah ores of 

 these metals generally contain other vanadium 

 minerals in such quantity that vanadium 

 oxide is present in excess of the uranium 

 oxide. However, little is paid for the vana- 

 dium, as its separation from uranium is 

 troublesome, and only a few thousand dollars 

 was received in 1914 by brokers or producers 

 for the vanadium in the ores sold. Sandstone 

 impregnated with roscoelite, a vanadium- 

 bearing mica, is mined at Vanadium, San 

 Miguel County, Colo., on the eastern edge of 

 the earnotite field, by the Primes Chemical Co. 



The total quantity of vanadium in the earno- 

 tite and other ores mined during the year was 

 apparently about 432 tons. About the begin- 

 ning of 1914, owing to the very high prices 

 charged for radium salts, their scarcity, their 

 evident usefulness in treating diseases, the 

 practical impossibility of the poor receiving 

 treatment by radium because of its scarcity 

 and high cost, and to the fact that much of the 

 radium-bearing ore was being shipped out of the 

 country. Secretary of the Interior Lane caused 

 to be introduced in Congress bills reserving 

 radium-bearing lands from entry as mining 

 claims, and providing for government pur- 

 chase. The bills are still pending. During the 

 year the National Eadium Institute conducted, 

 under the supervision of the Bureau of Mines, 

 mining operations at Long Park, near Paradox 

 Valley, in Montrose County, Colo., and a plant 

 at Denver for the production of radium and 

 investigation of processes. The work has been 

 so encouraging that Director Holmes has an- 

 nounced the probable production of radium at 

 one third its present cost. Messrs. Lind and 

 Whittemore, of the Bureau of Mines, state 

 that their investigations show that earnotite 

 carries proportionally to its content of ura- 

 nium as much radium as pitchblende or other 

 uranium minerals — that is, the radium has 

 reached its maximum ratio to the uranium 

 from which it is derived and is thus in equilib- 

 rium. From published results of experiments 

 made on casual specimens of earnotite it had 

 been popularly supposed that earnotite was less 

 rich than pitchblende in radium. 



An unusual feature of the work of the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 Department of Commerce, during the past 

 summer was the successful use of a one and 

 one half ton automobile truck in transporting 

 an astronomical party and outfit through a 

 portion of the southwest which is generally 

 dreaded by the transcontinental tourist. The 

 party was in charge of Mr. C. V. Hodgson and 

 was in the field from May to October. The 

 trip is the more remarkable when the fact is 

 taken into consideration that the requirements 

 of the work prevented a close adherence to the 

 routes usually followed. Observations were 



