RADIUM MAKES GEMS BLUSH
D. Berthelot, F. Bordes, C. Doelter, and others observed that the rays from radium induced important changes in the colors of minerals.
Dr. T. Squance, of Sunderland, England, succeeded in transforming a sapphire of faint pink hue into a gorgeous ruby color, and a faint green sapphire into an oriental emerald hue. It was already known that a diamond exposed to the rays of radium glows with a beautiful green light.
In experiments carried out at the United States Bureau of Mines (1921), in Reno, Nevada, a colorless Colorado topaz was tinted yellow by exposure to penetrating radiation. If a method can be devised to make the color permanent, the discovery will greatly increase the value of the gem-stone material found in the west.
If we submit yellow phosphorous to the action of radioactive substances, it becomes changed into the red “alotropic” variety. Certain of the rays decompose ammonia, and water under their influence is subjected to electrolysis, yielding oxygen and hydrogen.