This relation is to be expected, since the decay and recovery curves of
the emanation are determined by exactly the same conditions as the decay
and recovery curves of Ur X and Th X. In both cases there is:
(1) A supply of fresh radio-active particles produced at a constant
rate.
(2) A loss of activity of the particles following an exponential law
with the time.
In the case of Ur X and Th X, the active matter produced manifests its
activity in the position in which it is formed; in this new phenomenon,
a proportion of the active matter in the form of the emanation escapes
into the surrounding gas. The activity of the emanation, due to a
thorium compound kept in a closed vessel, thus reaches a maximum when
the rate of supply of fresh emanation particles from the compound is
balanced by the rate of change of those already present. The time for
recovery of half the final activity is about 1 minute, the same as the
time taken for the emanation, when left to itself, to lose half its
activity.
If _q₀_ is the number of emanation particles escaping into the gas per
second, and _N₀_ the final number when radio-active equilibrium is
reached, then (section 133),
_q₀_ = λ_N₀_.
Since the activity of the emanation falls to half value in 1 minute
λ = ¹⁄₈₇,
and _N₀_ = 87_q₀_, or the number of emanation particles present when a
steady state is reached is 87 times the number produced per second.
Radium Emanation.
=144. Discovery of the emanation.= Shortly after the discovery of the
thorium emanation, Dorn[236] repeated the results, and, in addition,
showed that radium compounds also gave off radio-active emanations, and
that the amount given off was much increased by heating the compound.
The radium emanation differs from the thorium emanation in the rate at
which it loses its activity. It decays far more slowly, but in other
respects the emanations of thorium and radium have much the same
properties. Both emanations ionize the gas with which they are mixed,
and affect a photographic plate. Both diffuse readily through porous
substances but are unable to pass through a thin plate of mica; both
behave like a temporarily radio-active gas, mixed in minute quantity
with the air or other gas in which they are conveyed.
=145. Decay of activity of the emanation.= Very little emanation escapes
from radium chloride in the solid state, but the amount is largely
increased by heating, or by dissolving the compound in water. By
bubbling air through a radium chloride solution, or passing air over a
heated radium compound, a large amount of emanation may be obtained
which can be collected, mixed with air, in a suitable vessel.
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