1 day 0·027 „ 9 „ 0·0041 „
3 „ 0·011 „ 11 „ 0·0020 „
4 „ 0·0095 „ 12 „ 0·0011 „
6 „ 0·0063 „ 28 „ 0·0004 „
The volume contracted with the time, and was very small after a month’s
interval, but the minute bubble of the emanation still retained its
luminosity to the last. The tube became deep purple in colour, which
rendered readings difficult except with a strong light. There was a
sudden decrease in the first day, which may have been due to the mercury
sticking in the capillary tube.
The experiments were repeated with another capillary tube and the volume
of gas observed at normal pressure was 0·0254 c. mm. The gas obtained
was found to obey Boyle’s law within the limit of experimental error
over a considerable range of pressure. But, unlike in the first
experiment, the gas did not contract but expanded rapidly during the
first few hours, and then more slowly, finally reaching a volume after
23 days of 0·262 c. mm. or about 10 times the initial volume. The
measurements were complicated by the appearance of bubbles of gas in the
top of the mercury column. The differences observed in these two
experiments are difficult to account for. We shall see, later, that the
emanation always produces helium, and, in the first experiment, the
decrease of the volume to zero indicates that the helium was buried or
absorbed in the walls of the tube. In the second case, probably owing to
some difference in the glass of the capillary tube, the helium may have
been released. This suggestion is confirmed by the observation that the
volume of gas, after the experiment ended, gave a brilliant spectrum of
helium.
We shall see later that there is considerable evidence that the α
particles expelled from radio-active substances consist of helium atoms.
Since the particles are projected with great velocity, they will first
be buried in the walls of the tube, and then may gradually diffuse out
into the gas again under conditions probably depending on the kind of
glass employed. Since α particles are projected from the emanation and
also from two of the rapidly changing products which arise from it, the
volume of helium should, on this view, be three times the initial volume
of the emanation. If the helium produced escaped from the walls of the
tube into the gas, the apparent volume of the gas in the capillary
should increase to three times the initial volume in a month’s interval,
for during that time the emanation itself has been transformed into a
solid type of matter deposited on the walls of the tube.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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