Producing Power from Water Two somewhat remarkable state-fients about new possibilities of radium havoc teen made in the technical world. One of these iv the possibility of producing power from water with the help of radium. Water, if exposed to radium, is decomposed at a high temperature into oxygen and hydrogen, and by using the latter as @ source of fuel, power can be obtained and an internal combus: tion engine could be run from water alone. Under the influence of radio-active matter, more energy is obtained from the water than that required to effect Tis decomposition. Such, at any rate, is the claim of a German patentee, whose patent has been granted.
The production, of synthetic compounds from the air is a discovery made by Mr. F. Harrison Glen, the radium expert, who has found that it is possible to form organic compounds fiom the moisture and exrbonic acid in the atmosphere. The quantities of synthetic compounds produced by radium are of course, extremely small, and their formation very slow, as was the case with the first products made by photosynthesis—i.e., by the action of certain rays of light. Mr. Glen thinks that increased production might be obtained by increasing the quantity of water vapour anil carbonic acid in the air. But the establishment of a new science, that, of radio-synthesis, has been opened up, the possibilities of which in the field of synthetic chemistry cannot at present be foreseen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.