It was found that thorium compounds varied enormously in emanating
power, although the percentage proportion of thorium present in the
compound was not very different. For example, the emanating power of
thorium hydroxide was generally 3 to 4 times greater than that of
ordinary thoria, obtained from the manufacturer. Thorium nitrate, in the
solid state, had only ¹⁄₂₀₀ of the emanating power of ordinary thoria,
while preparations of the carbonate were found to vary widely among
themselves in emanating power, which depended upon slight variations in
the method of preparation.
=150. Effect of conditions on emanating power.= The emanating power of
different compounds of thorium and radium is much affected by the
alteration of chemical and physical conditions. In this respect the
emanating power, which is a measure of the rate of escape of the
emanation into the surrounding gas, must not be confused with the rate
of decay of the activity of the emanations themselves, which has already
been shown to be unaffected by external conditions.
Dorn (_loc. cit._) first observed that the emanating power of thorium
and radium compounds was much affected by moisture. In a fuller
investigation of this point by Rutherford and Soddy, it was found that
the emanating power of thoria is from two to three times greater in a
moist than in a dry gas. Continued desiccation of the thoria in a glass
tube, containing phosphorus pentoxide, did not reduce the emanating
power much below that observed in ordinary dry air. In the same way
radium chloride in the solid state gives off very little emanation when
in a dry gas, but the amount is much increased in a moist gas.
The rate of escape of emanation is much increased by solution of the
compound. For example, thorium nitrate, which has an emanating power of
only ¹⁄₂₀₀ that of thoria in the solid state, has in solution an
emanating power of 3 to 4 times that of thoria. P. Curie and Debierne
observed that the emanating power of radium was also much increased by
solution.
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