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297

Marie Curie

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Marie Curie

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Auction Date:2012 Dec 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Polish-born French physicist (1867–1934), she and her husband Pierre discovered two new elements, polonium and radium, in 1898. In 1911 she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She died of leukemia brought about by her work with radioactive material. DS, in French, signed “M. Curie,” one page, 8.25 x 12, December 24, 1924. Document headlined “RADIUM DOSAGE BY RADIATION Y.”

“DEVICE NATURE AND SOURCE.
Solid Radium salt device a round steel plaque No. 5.521.
diameter 18.7 mm “
thickness 5.5 “
weight 9.057 gr.
brought by the Belgian Radium on December 11, 1924
and returned to “ “ on December 27, 1924
MEASUREMENT CONDITIONS.
The device radiation Y is compared to the Laboratory radiation Y Standard.
If device has not reached its radiation limit, it is deducted from
measurements by calculation.
The device covered by this Certificate had not reached its radiation limit.
MEASUREMENT RESULTS.
The radiation Y limit emitted outside the device is equal to
10.12 Milligrams of radium element.
RADIUM QUANTITY CONTAINED IN DEVICE.
This quantity is evaluated taking into account radiation Y absorption through the
device wall, according to its thickness and its absorption coefficient.
Thickness indicated by the Belgian Radium is mm: 0.1
Resulting correction is evaluated at 0.52%
of radiation Y which emanates substance.
Radium quantity contained in device is therefore:

RADIUM ELEMENT MILLIGRAMS 10.18
ten milligrams, eighteen hundredth
RaBr², 2H²0 hydrated radium bromide milligrams 18.98
eighteen milligrams, ninety-eight hundredth providing that the material used contains no other radioactive substances than radium of its by-product. Measurement precision is sufficient when a margin of error does not reach 1%. This certificate is specific to the device it must accompany.”

In very good condition, with intersecting folds, a couple trivial edge tears, a few creases, and uniform light toning.

After discovering radium, learning to isolate and measure it, and beginning to develop extraordinarily valuable uses for it, Marie Curie had only one problem: getting it! When Belgium discovered enormous reserves of highly rich pitchblende in the Congo in 1913, they quickly took over the radium industry, producing over 82% of the world’s supply within the decade. By 1924, the Union Miniere du Haut-Katanga achieved a complete monopoly. In order to carry on with her large-scale research, Curie had to work to negotiate fair prices from the Belgian manufacturers. They often sent her some tons of residue from which she would extract and measure the coveted elements before reporting her findings back to them. This document, presenting the precise measurements of radioactive elements from a device “brought by the Belgian Radium on December 11, 1924 and returned to Belgian Radium on December 27, 1924,” holds incredible value in its content, as it illustrates the scientist at work with the element that consumed her life.
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