During this experiment the dissolved salt was placed in a vessel merely
covered with a watch-glass.
I made with the same salt two solutions which I kept in sealed tubes for
thirteen months; one of these solutions was eight times the strength of
the other:—
Initial activity of the salt in concentrated solution after
evaporation 200
Initial activity of the salt in dilute solution after evaporation 100
The loss of activity of the salt is therefore greater when the amount of
solvent is greater, the radio-active energy transmitted to the liquid
having a greater volume of liquid to saturate and a greater space to
fill. The two specimens of the same salt, which thus had a different
initial activity, further increased in activity at very different rates
at first; at the end of one day they had the same activity, and the
increase of activity now continued in the same manner for both till the
limit was reached.
When the solution is dilute the loss of activity by the salt is very
rapid, as is shown by the following experiments:—Three equal portions of
the same radium salt are dissolved in equal quantities of water. The
first solution (_a_) is allowed to stand in contact with the air for one
hour, and is then evaporated. The second solution (_b_) has a current of
air passed through it for one hour, and is then evaporated. The third
solution (_c_) is left exposed to the air for thirteen days, and then
evaporated to dryness. The initial activity of each of the three salts
is:—
For portion _a_ 145·2
For portion _b_ 141·6
For portion _c_ 102·6
The limiting activity of the same salt is about 470. We thus see that
the greatest part of the effect was produced at the end of one hour.
Further, the air current bubbling through solution _b_ for one hour
produced little effect. The proportion of salt in solution was about 0·5
per cent.
Radio-active energy in the form of an emanation is propagated with
difficulty from solid radium in air; it experiences the same resistance
to propagation from solid radium in a liquid. When radium sulphate is
shaken with water for a whole day, its activity after the operation is
practically the same as that of a portion of the same sulphate left
exposed to air.
On placing the radium salt in a vacuum, all the emanation capable of
displacement is withdrawn. However, the radio-activity of a radium
chloride kept _in vacuo_ for six days was not sensibly affected by the
operation. This experiment shows that the radio-activity of the salt is
principally due to the radio-active energy generated within the
particles, and which is unaffected by the vacuum.
The loss of activity that radium undergoes when in solution is
relatively greater for the penetrating rays than for the absorbable
rays. The following are examples of this:—
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