What lab equipment did Marie Curie use to isolate radium?
After searching Google Books, I found autobiographical notes from Marie Curie. Apparently, it was radium chloride that was isolated first, not elemental radium. Salts can often be precipitated from solution at much lower temperatures than those needed to melt many inorganic materials, and you typically wouldn't need to shield a solution from air, so ampoules wouldn't be needed. This would be the case for fractional crystallization, which she mentions in her autobiographical notes. (She also mentions spending whole days &quot;mixing a boiling mass with a heavy iron rod&quot;. I'm not sure if she's referring to mixing molten material or a solution in water or acid.) She also says they eventually used a factory; as time passed and their work became &quot;more and more known&quot;, she was able to do the &quot;crude processes&quot; in a factory, allowing herself &quot;more time to the delicate finishing treatment&quot;.
source: the book Pierre Curie: with Autobiographical Notes by Marie Curie