Radium

“Madame [Marie] Curie, working with her distinguished husband, isolated and first traced to its true origin the source of the marvellous power which has thus commenced to revolutionise our philosophy of physics. This new element has appropriately been named "Radium;" but it has also been shown that there are many other, though less powerful, radio-active elements, details of which are recorded in the sequel. To be precise, radium, per se, has not yet been isolated as a metal, but only in the form ⟳ of salts,—chlorides and bromides. [...] It is supposed that the molecules of radium (composed of similar atoms) during their decomposition into those of the gas helium, are also frittered down into heat and, in part, are liberated as radio-activity.”

“The persistence of radio-activity on glass vessels which have ⟳ contained radium is remarkable. Filters, beakers, and dishes used in the laboratory for operations with radium, after having been washed in the usual way, remain ⟳ radio-active: a piece of blende screen held inside the beaker or other vessel immediately glowing with the presence of radium.”

“The object of this work ⟳ is to determine ⟳ how the radiums D, E, and F are separated from the substance known as radio-lead by certain chemical reactions. Recrystallisation of the nitrate from a neutral solution gradually removes the radium-F (polonium), which remains in the mother liquor, but does not appreciably influence ⟳ the amounts of radiums D and E in the crystals.”

“Radium is formed by the breaking up of atoms of another element called uranium, but radium shows this breaking up process ⟳ in its own ⟳ atoms more distinctly than does uranium or any other element we know ⟳, and it is this breaking up that gives radium its astonishing properties such as the production of heat, electricity, and wave ⟳ motions in the ether which are similar to the wave ⟳ motions which produce ⟳ the sensation of light ⟳ to our eyes.”

“As for myself, I had to devote again a great deal ⟳ of time to the preparation of several decigrammes of very pure radium chloride. With this I achieved, in 1907, a new determination of the atomic weight of radium, and in 1910 I was able to isolate the metal.”

“Of the total, fifteen cases were treated surgically, seventeen by radium, one by a combination of the two methods, three by radium and X-ray, one by the Percy cautery, two by the cautery, and two by the cautery preceding the application of radium.”

“As soon as it had been shown that skin burns could be caused by radium, medical men began to experiment ⟳ in order ⟳ to find ⟳ out if malignant growths of the skin could be destroyed by the same agency. [...] Immense strides have ⟳ been made in the technique of applying the radium to kill ⟳ cancers.”

“Well, remember ⟳ how the children of the State Orphanage became mysteriously ill? The doctors diagnosed it as radium poisoning, but how it happened was a first class mystery to them. There's no radium factory within miles of the orphanage.”

“The U.S. radium dial painters of the 1920s comprised an early cohort of several thousand workers at increased risk ⟳ of developing radiation induced cancers.”

“Even as X-rays vied with radium as the preferred tool for biological experimentation in later decades, [Hermann Joseph] Muller continued to rely ⟳ on radium not only as a mutagen, but also as an important conceptual tool, seeing radium and life as somehow intimately connected analogically, discursively, evolutionarily, mechanistically, and metaphysically.”

“City retailers are doing well with high-class radiums printed in bright greens, brilliant purples and strong yellows. Such are the high novelties.”

“In printed silks for outer garments and linings there are crêpe de chines, silk and cotton crêpes, georgettes, radiums and mousselines de soie. [...] [O]n radiums; Japanese print ⟳ designs, silhouetted with parasols or flowers and shrubs, treated in Japanese style, on dark grounds, are employed. There are also a number ⟳ of futuristic figures printed on radiums.”

“Radium satins will also be used extensively in the spring ⟳ season.”

“Radium, a term rather loosely applied to the bulk of domestic cloths of this class, includes goods of two fairly distinct types. [...] It is often tightly woven under high tension and so finished as to produce ⟳ a highly lustrous appearance. But high luster is not essential, for many high-grade radiums are given a more or less dull finish ⟳. Of whatever finish ⟳, various cloths of this type ⟳ are manufactured sometimes under the designation radium and sometimes under special copyrighted names.”

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C2

Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.

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