Rhodium Discovery

In the early 1900’s, the discovery of a luminescent material, radium, arrived on the scene to the delight of a fascinated and eager public. At first, it seemed to be a miracle remedy, not just harmless but even beneficial. However, when a multitude of watch dial painters were exposed to this substance on an extremely consistent basis, the negative effects began bubbling to the surface. These “Radium Girls” were unknowingly consuming a potentially lethal substance and would be the first victims of radium poisoning and radioactivity. Not many people knew about the dangers of radioactive substances or radium poisoning and many others had made judgements that were clouded by the perfection of the glowing sensation. In spite of this, the horrific afflictions that the Radium Girls endured helped shift the public perspective of radium from “wonder drug” to “pitiless poison” and started the country on a path to regulating the handling of radioactive

The book “Radioactive Boy Scout” is a true story about a boy named David Hahn that attended a Michigan high school. His goal was to set out and build a fast breeder reactor in his garden shed. He educated himself in these things by reading popular mechanics and the golden book of chemistry experiments. Whatever he could not get from laboratory suppliers, universities, hospitals, and nuclear agencies, he made himself. David collected household smoke detectors and extracted americium-24. He also got assembled gas mantle covers and pulverized them to get radioactive thorium and took the Geiger counter in to an antique shop where he found a clock with a phial of radium paint left in it. With a little bit of things he had

who said “All this colonial business is a sham, but we need it for elections”

Radium appears as a shiny, silvery metal of high radioactivity. Radium can be “used to treat prostate cancer that has spread to the bones,” and in the past, it was “used in luminous paints, for example in clock and watch dials” (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017). Radium is present in the environment, and people that live in areas where coal or other fuels are burning and released into the air are more exposed to higher levels of radium. Radium can enter the body by breathing or swallowing and can remain in the body for months, only exiting in small amounts by urine and feces (“Public Health Statement for Radium,” 1990). High levels of radium exposure over a long period of time are extremely dangerous to the health of an individual. The harmful effects of radium could cause “anemia, cataracts, fractured teeth, cancer (especially bone cancer), and death” (“Public Health Statement for Radium,” 1990). The greater amount of radium exposure an individual receives, the greater their chance is to developing one of these diseases (“Public Health Statement for Radium,”

Krypton, (symbol being Kr), is a very interesting element. It was discovered May 30, 1898 by Sir William Ramsay and Morris M. Travers, who were Scottish and English chemists. Krypton was named from the Greek word ‘kryptos’, which means hidden. It was found when the chemists were studying liquefied air. It is about 0.0001% of the earth atmosphere. It can also be found in some photographic flashes, some fluorescent light bulbs, and can be combined with other gases to make signs with a greenish-yellow glow.

In the early 1900’s radium was “the latest miracle substance” (Hersher & Blum, 2014). Salesmen promised that it extended lifespans, increased sex drive, made women more beautiful, and had many other fantastic effects. The world was infatuated with radium and displayed this by putting it in slews of items including face cream, bread, chocolate, suppositories, toy sets for children, drinking water (as shown in figure 1), toothpaste, watch faces, and many more products. (List from scribal.com, 2007) It was used often in pharmaceuticals and described by advertisers as “nature’s way to health.” “Doctors used it to treat everything from colds to cancer.” (Hersher & Blum, 2014) However, the “magical” substance that was radium turned out to

With the rumour going around that the Nazi’s have discovered how to make uranium go through a chain

Krypton, atomic symbol of Kr, received its name from the Greek word kryptos, meaning hidden (Newton, 2010). This name is quite fitting seeing as the element is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas ("Krypton," 2007) at room temperature ("The Element

“This work prepared the way for the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick and, above all, for the discovery in 1934 by Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie of artificial radioactivity” (Britannica). Marie Curie had stockpiled enough radium so that her daughter, Irene Curie, and her husband discovered artificial radioactivity. This led to ease of locating tumors using radioactive isotopes of certain elements and to the discovery of the neutron in nucleus of atoms. It solved many occurrences that scientists couldn't explain, such as what happened during alpha decay and atomic masses of

Over one hundred years ago, in 1911, a French-polish woman was awarded not her first but second Nobel Peace Prize. This time for discovering a new element. She was awarded, “"in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." This was and still is a fascinating and remarkable element. Radium has had an intense history of misuse which led to tragic effects on many, but once used properly it has become essential for the treating of certain cancers. Radium has been a controversial element in America’s history but in the end it has proven useful. The focus of this paper will be Radium:

The element I got was Lead, Lead is a chemical element that is assigned the symbol Pb it is from the Latin plumbum and it is a bluish-white element, Lead is not really rare but since it is fairly widespread and easy to extract it typically occurs in very small amounts in ores and is found in the ores galena, anglesite, cerussite and minim also the earth’s crust contains approximately 0.0013 percent lead. Lead can be toxic to humans and animal but is found mostly in combination and used a lot in cable sheaths, batteries, solder, and pipes, its ductility and resistance to corrosion with tiny leaks, make it a particularly good material for constructing water pipes. This element has been known since ancient years and the year is unknown when it

After the whole class boarded the magic limousine once again, we all all traveled to the year 1899. The whole 10th grade chemistry class met Ernest Rutherford. Earnest and Ms. Siepsiak seemed to be great friends! How cool is that? While he was conducting his Gold foil experiment he explained that he set up a thin beam of alpha particles to stream over to a sheet of gold. He also placed a sample of radium inside a lead box with a small hole in it. As the experiment went on, Rutherford analyzed that most of the radiation was absorbed by the lead. However, at the same time a thin beam of alpha particles shot out of the pinhole and went towards the gold foil. The gold foil experiment was set up in a way that it was surrounded by a detector screen

The first element the Curies discovered was called polonium, which contained a unstable nucleus. Yet she felt there was something more powerful still trapped in the pitchblende. On December 26, the Curies announced they had found another element. This was radium! Sadly, other scientists wouldn't believe them because they didn’t have any proof. So for the next four years Marie toiled day and night in a cold and damp shed to get a piece of pure radium from a ton, as in 2000 pounds, of pitchblende. Finally, in 1902, Marie produced one-tenth of gram of pure radium. In November, 1903, Curies along with Antoine

Radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel. He used fluorescent minerals to study the properties of x-rays. He had photographic plates, which had been wrapped around in black paper with potassium uranyl sulfate that had been exposed to sunlight on top. This had been believed that uranium had absorbed the sun’s energy, then released to create an x-ray. His first experiment had failed due to an overcast over in Paris, but this didn’t stop Becquerel from developing his photographic plates. Although Becquerel was the one to discover radiation, the term radioactivity was formed by Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre. This was a little after the phenomenon that had recently been discovered by Becquerel. Extracting uranium from

     In July of 1898, Marie and Pierre Cure discovered Polonium. They named the element after Marie's birth country, Poland. Chemically, this new element was very similar to bismuth, but it contained radioactivity, so it must be new. In December of 1898, the Curie's discovered yet another element. They named this one radium, from the Latin word for ray. The two new elements had completely different chemical properties, but they both had very strong radioactivity.