Radium seventh of a gram of radium. One kilogram of the Earth's crust contains about 900 picograms of radium, and one liter of sea water contains about 89 femtograms of radium. Radium was discovered by Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie on 21 December 1898, in a uraninite (pitchblende) sample. While studying the mineral earlier, the Curies removed uranium from it and found that the remaining material was still radioactive. They separated out an element similar to bismuth from pitchblende in July 1898, that turned out to be polonium. They then separated out a radioactive mixture consisting mostly of two
Radium bromide from such a large amount of material, it was difficult to find a large quantity of radium. This was the reason radium bromide became one of the most expensive materials on earth. It was desired by many all around the world and there was very little to go around. In 1921, it was stated in "Times" magazine that radium cost 17,000,000,000 Euros per ton compared to gold at 208,000 Euros and coal, as diamond, at 400,000,000 Euros. A common reason that radium was added into almost everything at the time, including water and toys, was that people saw radium as