Chemical Poems: Thorium

Silvery-white metal. Density: 11.72 g/cm³. The name comes from the Scandinavian god Thor. In the early applications of X-rays, which were discovered in 1895, thorium oxide was injected to improve the observation of blood flow in some organs ("Thorotrast" method). Subsequently, many patients became ill with cancer. It was also used as additive in toothpaste. Only in 1898, seventy years after the discovery of thorium by Jöns Berzelius in 1828, did Marie Curie and Gerhard Carl Schmidt show that it is radioactive.

In the days of gas lighting, the net bags surrounding the gas flames were impregnated with thorium nitrate [1]. These net bags absorb heat from the flame, attaining 1400 °C, and emit a brilliant white light.

90 % of the heat in the liquid inside the Earth is produced by the decay of the isotopes thorium-232 and uranium-235 [2]. The mechanical interaction of plates of the Earth’s crust, floating on the matter below, causes earthquakes.

[1] G. Sadagopan et al., Radiat. Prot. Dosim. 1997, 71, 53–56.

[2] H. Keppler, P. J. Wyllie, Nature 1990, 348, 531–533.

Gas lanterns
in the streets. Dark excitation.
Pimps, junkies, police. Battered children.
A prostitute waits. Dogs rummage in the trash.
Couples seek a hiding place.
Thorium lamps
rule the night
in San Francisco.

Suddenly the city shakes.
Lanterns smash.
The earth opens.
Any quest is futile.
The Thorium furnace
under the ground
becomes the master
of life and strain
in the city.

Time passes by.
The dogs return
to the trash.
The prostitute
again
waits.