A CURIOUS ENTERPRISE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2758, 12 March 1910, Page 6

A CURIOUS ENTERPRISE.

A RADIUM BANK

A curious commercial enterprise is about to be established in the neighbourhood of Cavendish Square. There is a great demand for rauium for therapeutic purposes, a demand far in excess of the supply. The present price is from £l6 to £2l per milligram, but that would not be prohibitive if the ma. terial could be obtained. One Wigmor© stx*eet doctor is said, to hold 100 'milligrams, but his is a unique example. For some time pagt radium required for cancer treatment has been borrowed from Paris. The Radium Bank will keep in stock £50,000 worth of radium, and hire it out at 2 \ per cent, of its value for the first day, and h per cent, of its value for subsequent days—at which rates it ought to be a profitable undertaking. The radium will come from Guarda, in Portugal, where it is said to occur in a decayed granite containing outunite crystals. The Bohemian mine, controlled by the Austrian Government, will not supply radium for commercial purposes. There is said to be still not an ounce of pure radium in the world. With regard to the new ra-dium-bearing mineral, it is explained that autunite is a phosphate of radium which is admittedly difficult to work. A Radium Bank has been established in Paris for two or three years, and similar institutions are proposed for New York, Berlin, and Vienna.