Mat 6, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



721 



The prevailing scarcity of platinum now 

 directs attention to palladium as a prac- 

 ticable substitute; for it has many of the 

 good qualities of platinum, while its price 

 is rather lower. 



Both platinum and palladium occur in 

 all the numerous nickel mines found among 

 the Laurentian and Huronian rocks in the 

 province of Ontario, Canada; the quantity 

 of each of those metals varying from a 

 mere trace to one or more ounces per ton, 

 the average for each metal being about 

 one hundredth of an ounce per ton. 



Those Canadian ores carry nickel, cop- 

 per, silver, gold, platinum, palladium, 

 iridium and rhodium. The percentages of 

 the precious metals are extremely minute 

 and the various processes by which all these 

 metals are recovered are naturally com- 

 plicated and delicate ; yet as approximately 

 300,000 tons of these ores are treated an- 

 nually by the Orford Copper Company, 

 which owns most of those mines, that com- 

 pany now produces about 3,000 ounces of 

 palladiimi annually. The reports of the 

 Canadian government upon the metallic 

 and mineral resources of the dominion have 

 never mentioned palladium as one of those 

 resources. 



It is not known in what condition the 

 palladium exists in that region, but as 

 platinum has been found there in the form 

 of platinum arsenide, it seems probable 

 that palladium may occur in the same con- 

 dition. 



Among the valuable characteristics of 

 this metal are its hardness, ductility and 

 malleability; it is also so non-corrodible 

 that a polished sheet of it may long remain 

 exposed to chlorine and hydrogen sulphide 

 gases without tarnishing or losing its polish. 



Radium from American Ores: Professor 

 A. H. Phillips, Princeton, N. J. 

 The mineral from which the radium was 



separated was carnotite, a new mineral 



described in July, 1899, and found as yet 

 only in the western part of Colorado and 

 adjacent counties of Utah. In composi- 

 tion it is a potassium uranyl vanadate with 

 three molecules of water of crystallization. 



In October, 1902, twenty-five pounds of 

 this ore were obtained from Richardson, 

 Utah. This ore contained less than ten 

 per cent, of carnotites. Its activity as 

 compared to uranium nitrate was .40. 



This was treated with concentrated acids, 

 as it was thought that particularly nitric 

 acid would dissolve the radium salts. 



After washing the insoluble residue the 

 solutions were concentrated. As the ore 

 contained very little barium, some barium 

 chloride was added as a carrier for the 

 radium; the sulphates were then precipi- 

 tated, barium separated and obtained free 

 from other bases by the ordinary methods. 



The barium carbonate dissolved in the 

 least possible quantity of hydrochloric acid 

 and fractioned by crystallization three 

 times. The final product weighed a little 

 less than one half gram and gave an ac- 

 tivity compared to uranyl nitrate of 1,500. 

 The residual chlorides were recovered and 

 weighed very near two grams, and as meas- 

 ured by G. B. Pegram, of Columbia, their 

 activity compared to uranium was 365. 



With these results, had a ton of ore been 

 used, and if it were possible to concentrate 

 the activity into one gram of barium 

 chloride, it would give an activity of ap- 

 proximately 60,000. 



In February, 1904, 3.5 kilos of ore were 

 obtained from Montrose County, Colorado. 

 This ore before treatment gave an activity 

 of 1.71 compared to uranyl nitrate. After 

 treatment with dilute acids the residue gave 

 an activity of 1.40. There was recovered 

 from these acid solutions 3.8 grams of ba- 

 rium carbonate with an activity of 35.8. 

 It was expected that the activity could be 

 concentrated, or the radium separated from 

 the insoluble residue by boiling with so- 



