rapidly lose their activity. Moreover, W. J. Russell has shown that the darkening of a photographic plate can be produced by many agents which do not give out rays like those of the radio-active bodies. This darkening of the plate is produced under the most varied conditions, and very special precautions are necessary when long exposures to a weak source of radiation are required.
The main objection to the photographic method, however, lies in the fact that the radiations which produce the strongest electrical effect are very weak photographically. For example, Soddy[1] has shown that the photographic action of uranium is due almost entirely to the more penetrating rays, and that the easily absorbed rays produce in comparison very little effect. Speaking generally, the penetrating rays are the most active photographically, and, under ordinary conditions, the action on the plate is almost entirely due to them.
Most of the energy radiated from active bodies is in the form of easily absorbed rays which are comparatively inactive photographically. These rays are difficult to study by the photographic method, as the layer of black paper which, in many cases, is required in order to absorb the phosphorescent light from active substances, cuts off at the same time most of the rays under examination. These easily absorbed rays will be shown to play a far more important part in the processes occurring in radio-active bodies than the penetrating rays which are more active photographically.
The electrical method, on the other hand, offers a rapid and accurate method of quantitatively examining the radiations. It can be used as a means of measurement of all the types of radiation emitted, excluding light waves, and is capable of accurate measurement over an extremely wide range. With proper precautions it can be used to measure effects produced by radiations of extremely small intensity.
54. Electrical Methods. The electrical methods employed
in studying radio-activity are all based on the property of the
radiation in question of ionizing the gas, i.e. of producing positively
and negatively charged carriers throughout the volume of the gas.
The discussion of the application of the ionization theory of gases to
- ↑ Soddy, Trans. Chem. Soc. Vol. 81, p. 860, 1902.
