the gas that is directly in contact with them, this equilibrium would be the actual state of affairs; and it would follow from the principle of Archimedes that, when extraneous forces such as gravity are not considered, the gas would exert no resultant force on any body immersed in it. On this ground Maxwell inferred that the forces acting in the radiometer are connected with gliding of the gas along the unequally heated boundaries; and as the laws of this slipping, as well as the constitution of the adjacent layer, are uncertain, the problem becomes very intricate. Such slipping had shown itself at high exhaustions in the experiments of A. A. Kundt and E. G. Warburg in 1875 on the viscosity of gases; its effects would be corrected for, in general, by a slight effective addition to the thickness of the gaseous layer.
Reynolds, in his investigation, introducing no new form of law of distribution of velocities, uses a linear quantity, proportional to the mean free path of the gaseous molecules, which he takes to represent (somewhat roughly) the average distance from which molecules directly affect, by their convection, the state of the medium; the gas not being uniform on account of the gradient of temperature, the change going on at each point is calculated from the elements contributed by the parts at this particular distance in all directions. He, lays stress on the dimensional relations of the problem, pointing out that the phenomena which occur with large vanes in highly rarefied gas could also occur with proportionally smaller vanes in gas at higher pressure. The results coincide with Maxwell’s so far as above stated, though the numerical coefficients do not agree. According to Maxwell, priority in showing the necessity for slipping over the boundary rests with Reynolds, who also discovered the cognate fact of thermal transpiration, meaning thereby that gas travels up the gradient of temperature in a capillary tube, owing to surface-actions, until it establishes such a gradient of pressure (extremely minute) as will prevent further flow. In later memoirs Reynolds followed up this subject by proceeding to establish definitions of the velocity and the momentum and the energy at an element of volume of the molecular medium, with the precision necessary in order that the dynamical equations of the medium in bulk, based in the usual manner on these quantities alone, without directly considering thermal stresses, shall be strictly valid-a discussion in which the relation of ordinary molar mechanics to the more complete molecular theory is involved.
Of late years the peculiarities of the radiometer at higher gas-pressures have been very completely studied by E. F. Nichols and G. F. Hull, with the result that there is a certain pressure at which the molecular effect of the gas on a pair of nearly vertical vanes is balanced by that of convection currents in it. By thus controlling and partially eliminating the aggregate gas-effect, they succeeded in making a small radiometer, horizontally suspended, into a delicate and reliable measurer of the intensity of the radiation incident on it. With the experience thus gained in manipulating the vacuum, the achievement of thoroughly verifying the pressure of radiation on both opaque and transparent bodies, in accordance with Clerk Maxwell’s formula, has been effected (Physical Review, 1901, and later papers) by E. F. Nichols and G. F. Hull; some months earlier Lebédew had published in the Annalen der Physik a verification for metallic vanes so thin as to avoid the gas-action, by preventing the production of sensible difference of temperature between the two faces by the incident radiation. (See Radiation.)
More recently J. H. Poynting has separated the two effects experimentally on the principle that the radiometer pressure acts along the normal, while the radiation pressure acts along the ray which may be directed obliquely. (J. L.*)
RADISH, Raphanus sativus (nat. order Cruciferae), in botany, a fleshy-rooted annual, unknown in the wild state. Some varieties of the wild radish, R. Raphanistrum, however, met with on the Mediterranean coasts, come so near to it as to suggest that it may possibly be a cultivated race of the same species. It is very popular as a raw salad. There are two principal forms, the spindle-rooted and the turnip-rooted.
The radish succeeds in any well-worked not too heavy garden soil, but requires a warm, sheltered situation. The seed is generally sown broadcast, in beds 4 to 5 ft. wide, with alleys between, the beds requiring to be netted over to protect them from birds. The earliest crop may be sown about the middle of December, the seed-beds being at once covered with litter, which should not be removed till the plants come up, and then only in the daytime, and when there is no frost. If the crop succeeds, which depends on the state of the weather, it will be in use about the beginning of March. Another sowing may be made in January, a third early in February, if the season is a favourable one, and still another towards the end of February, from which time till October a small sowing should be made every fortnight or three weeks in spring, and rather more frequently during summer. About the end of October, and again in November, a late sowing may be made on a south border or bank, the plants being protected in severe weather with litter or mats. The winter radishes, which grow to a large size, should be sown in the beginning of July and in August, in drills from 6 to 9 in. apart, the plants being thinned out to 5 or 6 in. in the row. The roots become fit for use during the autumn. For winter use they should be taken up before severe frost sets in, and stored in dry sand. Radishes, like other fleshy roots, are attacked by insects, the most dangerous being the larvae of several species of fly, especially the radish fly (Anthomyia radicum). The most effectual means of destroying these is by watering the plants with a dilute solution of carbolic acid, or much diluted gas-water; or gas-lime may be sprinkled along the rows.
Forcing.—To obtain early radishes a sowing in the British Isles should be made about the beginning of November, and continued fortnightly till the middle or end of February; the crop will generally be fit for use about six weeks after sowing. The seed should be sown in light rich soil, 8 or 9 in. thick, on a moderate hotbed, or in a pit with a temperature of from 55° to 65°. Gentle waterings must be given, and air admitted at every favourable opportunity; but the sashes must be protected at night and in frosty weather with straw mats or other materials. Some of these crops are often grown with forced potatoes. The best forcing sorts are Wood’s early frame, and the early rose globe, early dwarf-top scarlet turnip, and early dwarf-top white turnip.
Those best suited for general cultivation are the following:—
Spindle-rooled.—Long scarlet, including the sub-varieties scarlet short-top, early frame scarlet, and Wood’s early frame; long scarlet short-top, best for general crop.
Turnip-rooted.—Early rose globe-shaped, the earliest of all; early dwarf-top scarlet turnip, and early dwarf-top white turnip; earliest Erfurt scarlet, and early white short-leaved, both very early sorts; French breakfast, olive-shaped; red turnip and white turnip, for summer crops.
Winter sorts.—Black Spanish, white Chinese, Californian mammoth.
RADIUM (from Lat. radius, ray), a metallic chemical element obtained from pitchblende, a uranium mineral, by P. and Mme. Curie and G. Bémont in 1898; it was so named on account of the intensity of the radioactive emanations which it yielded. Its discovery was a sequel to H. Becquerel’s observation in 1896 that certain uranium preparations emitted a radiation resembling the X rays observed by Röntgen in 1895. Like the X rays, the Becquerel rays are invisible; they both traverse thin sheets of glass or metal, and cannot be refracted; moreover, they both ionize gases, i.e. they discharge a charged electroscope, the latter, however, much more feebly than the former. Characteristic, also, is their action on a photographic plate, and the phosphorescence which they occasion when they impinge on zinc sulphide and some other salts. Notwithstanding these resemblances, these two sets of rays are not indentical. Mme. Curie, regarding radioactivity—i.e. the emission of rays like those just mentioned—as a property of some undiscovered substance, submitted pitchblende to a most careful analysis. After removing the uranium, it was found that the bismuth separated with a very active substance—polonium; this element was afterwards isolated by Marckwald, and proved to be identical with his radiotellurium; that the barium could be
