radium

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The chemical element (symbol Ra) with an atomic number of 88. It is a soft, shiny and silvery radioactive alkaline earth metal.

   “The persistence of radio-activity on glass vessels which have contained radium is remarkable. Filters, beakers, and dishes used in the laboratory for operations with radium, after having been washed in the usual way, remain radio-active: a piece of blende screen held inside the beaker or other vessel immediately glowing with the presence of radium.”

   “The object of this work is to determine how the radiums D, E, and F are separated from the substance known as radio-lead by certain chemical reactions. Recrystallisation of the nitrate from a neutral solution gradually removes the radium-F (polonium), which remains in the mother liquor, but does not appreciably influence the amounts of radiums D and E in the crystals.”

   “Radium is formed by the breaking up of atoms of another element called uranium, but radium shows this breaking up process in its own atoms more distinctly than does uranium or any other element we know, and it is this breaking up that gives radium its astonishing properties such as the production of heat, electricity, and wave motions in the ether which are similar to the wave motions which produce the sensation of light to our eyes.”

   “As for myself, I had to devote again a great deal of time to the preparation of several decigrammes of very pure radium chloride. With this I achieved, in 1907, a new determination of the atomic weight of radium, and in 1910 I was able to isolate the metal.”

2. (countable, dated, uncountable)A type of cloth woven from silk or synthetic yarn, often with a shiny appearance.

   “City retailers are doing well with high-class radiums printed in bright greens, brilliant purples and strong yellows. Such are the high novelties.”

   “In printed silks for outer garments and linings there are crêpe de chines, silk and cotton crêpes, georgettes, radiums and mousselines de soie. [...] [O]n radiums; Japanese print designs, silhouetted with parasols or flowers and shrubs, treated in Japanese style, on dark grounds, are employed. There are also a number of futuristic figures printed on radiums.”

   “Radium satins will also be used extensively in the spring season.”

   “Radium, a term rather loosely applied to the bulk of domestic cloths of this class, includes goods of two fairly distinct types. [...] It is often tightly woven under high tension and so finished as to produce a highly lustrous appearance. But high luster is not essential, for many high-grade radiums are given a more or less dull finish. Of whatever finish, various cloths of this type are manufactured sometimes under the designation radium and sometimes under special copyrighted names.”

verb

1. (ambitransitive, obsolete)To treat (a tumour, etc.) with radium.

   “We want popular verbs for several operations introduced by modern science. The X-rays, the Finsen treatment for lupus, the operation of radium for cancer, and what not—what are the words for these? A man is guillotined or hanged; his leg is amputated; he is trepanned. What is it when he is rayed, Finsened, radiumed? [From the St. James's Gazette.]”

   “The victims thereof [i.e., of rheumatism] are drenched with salicylates and iodides; they are sent to spas to be bombarded by the doucheur and spanked by the masseur; they are subjected to electrical ecstasies and suffer Zander contortions; they are cataphoresed, vaccinated, serummed, radiumed and dieted, with results which vary from the sublime to the pathetic.”

   “The problem that we have to face in radiuming tumors is very complicated. [...] [T]he problem of distribution is to distribute throughout the territory irradiated an even dose, and we have found that that is a very difficult thing.”

   “Towards the end he was attended by Dr. Hymie Rubin. The great specialists with their fabulous bills had cut and radiumed to the tune of tumbling doubloons. [...] But the priceless surgeons said—too late: they could not repair the digestive engine after it had been knocked to pieces by years of neglect and abuse …”