Within the errors of measurement, the amount of excited activity is thus
proportional to the radiation from the emanation, _i.e._ to the amount
of emanation present. The same considerations hold for the radium
emanation. The emanation in this case, on account of the slow loss of
its activity, can be stored mixed with air for long periods in a
gasometer, and its effects tested quite independently of the active
matter from which it is produced. The ionization current due to the
excited activity produced by the emanation is always proportional to the
current due to the emanation for the period of one month or more that
its activity is large enough to be measured conveniently by an
electrometer.
If, at any time during the interval, some of the emanation is removed
and introduced into a new testing vessel, the ionization current will
immediately commence to increase, rising in the course of four or five
hours to about twice its original value. This increase of the current is
due to the excited activity produced on the walls of the containing
vessel. On blowing out the emanation, the excited activity is left
behind, and at once begins to decay. Whatever its age, the emanation
still possesses the property of causing excited activity, and in amount
always proportional to its activity, _i.e._ to the amount of emanation
present.
These results show that the power of exciting activity on inactive
substances is a property of the radio-active emanations, and is
proportional to the amount of emanation present.
The phenomenon of excited activity cannot be ascribed to a type of
phosphorescence produced by the rays from the emanation on bodies; for
it has been shown that the activity can be concentrated on the negative
electrode in a strong electric field, even if the electrode is shielded
from the direct radiation from the active substance which gives off the
emanation. The amount of excited activity does not seem in any way
connected with the ionization produced by the emanation in the gas with
which it is mixed. For example, if a closed vessel is constructed with
two large parallel insulated metal plates on the lower of which a layer
of thoria is spread, the amount of the excited activity on the upper
plate when charged negatively, is independent of the distance between
the plates when that distance is varied from 1 millimetre to 2
centimetres. This experiment shows that the amount of excited activity
depends only on the amount of emanation emitted from the thoria; for the
ionization produced with a distance of 2 centimetres between the plates
is about ten times as great as with a distance of 1 millimetre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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