$280,000 Pennyweight

Dr. Ira I. Kaplan was more cheerful than usual last week as he strode from room to room in Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, smiling at patients and fussing with x-ray machines. He had just received word of a European loan. Next month will arrive a $280,000 package addressed to him. Stripped of its wrappings it will weigh exactly four grams--about as much as a new U. S. penny--and it will make Dr. Kaplan guardian of more radium than anybody else in the Western Hemisphere. Of the 100 grams in the U. S. & Canada, 40 grams will be combined in New York's hospitals. England has 25 grams, France 20.

The world's supply of radium is a little less than 1 Ib. It is worth about $23,000,000. Several hundred tons of carnotite or pitchblende are required to produce one ounce of radium, after a laborious, costly process. Decade ago Colorado and Utah carnotite deposits had made the U. S. the world's largest radium producer but richer ore was found in the Belgian Congo and Radium Beige soon had established a monopoly. The Belgians have retorted that when the U. S. produced it the price was twice as high.

Radium ("element") is kept two ways: powdered, in tubes of platinum or gold, about an inch long, which are kept in thick lead boxes; or in a solution, in bottles encased in lead. Because radium is continually breaking down, its emanations must be pumped out of the bottles every 24 hours. The gas thus pumped off is sealed in containers, used in radiotherapy for treatment of cancer. But Dr. Kaplan believes best results are obtained from pack treatment, that the best pack is made from radium element. The minimum quantity for a proper pack treatment is five grams ($350,000). Until last year there were only six grams in possession of the New York Department of Hospitals. By means he kept a deep, dark secret Dr. Kaplan persuaded Radium Beige to lend him five more grams. One gram arrived last year, the other four will come next month. He will have use of the radium for one year. After that it must be returned when Radium Beige asks for it.

The life of radium is considered to be about 18,000 years. Authorities differ as to its rate of disintegration. If, as many believe, it loses half its potency in 6,000 years, at $70,000 per gram, the five grams Dr. Kaplan has borrowed will deteriorate less than $30 in value in a year.

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