Experiments of a similar kind on the radium emanation were made later. A
steady stream of gas was passed through a radium chloride solution and
then through the reagent to be employed, into a testing-vessel of small
volume, so that any change in the amount of emanation passing through
could readily be detected. The radium emanation, like that of thorium,
passed unchanged in amount through every reagent used.
In later experiments by Sir William Ramsay and Mr Soddy[252], the
emanation from radium was exposed to still more drastic treatment. The
emanation in a glass tube was sparked for several hours with oxygen over
alkali. The oxygen was then removed by ignited phosphorus and no visible
residue was left. When, however, another gas was introduced, mixed with
the minute amount of emanation in the tube and withdrawn, the activity
of emanation was found to be unaltered. In another experiment, the
emanation was introduced into a magnesium lime tube, which was heated
for three hours at a red heat. The emanation was then removed and
tested, but no diminution in its discharging power was observed.
The emanations of thorium and radium thus withstand chemical treatment
in a manner hitherto unobserved except in gases of the argon family.
=159.= Ramsay and Soddy (_loc. cit._) record an interesting experiment
to illustrate the gaseous nature of the emanation. A large amount of the
radium emanation was collected in a small glass tube. This tube
phosphoresced brightly under the influence of the rays from the
emanation. The passage of the emanation from point to point was observed
in a darkened room by the luminosity excited in the glass. On opening
the stop-cock connecting with the Töpler pump, the slow flow through the
capillary tube was noticed, the rapid passage along the wider tubes, the
delay in passing through a plug of phosphorous pentoxide, and the rapid
expansion into the reservoir of the pump. When compressed, the
luminosity of the emanation increased, and became very bright as the
small bubble containing the emanation was expelled through the fine
capillary tube.
Diffusion of the Emanations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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