for brevity and convenience have been termed by the writer the α, β, and γ rays.
(i) The α rays are very readily absorbed by thin metal foil and by a few centimetres of air. They have been shown to consist of positively charged bodies projected with a velocity of about 1/10 the velocity of light. They are deflected by intense magnetic and electric fields, but the amount of deviation is minute in comparison with the deviation, under the same conditions, of the cathode rays produced in a vacuum tube.
(ii) The β rays are far more penetrating in character than the α rays, and consist of negatively charged bodies projected with velocities of the same order as the velocity of light. They are far more readily deflected than the α rays, and are in fact identical with the cathode rays produced in a vacuum tube.
(iii) The γ rays are extremely penetrating, and non-deviable by a magnetic field. Their true nature is not definitely settled, but they are analogous in most respects to very penetrating Röntgen rays.
The three best known radio-active substances, uranium, thorium, and radium, all give out these three types of rays, each in an amount approximately proportional to its relative activity measured by the α rays. Polonium stands alone in giving only the α or easily absorbed rays[1].
72. Deflection of the rays. The rays emitted from the
active bodies thus present a very close analogy with the rays which
are produced in a highly exhausted vacuum tube when an electric
- ↑ In an examination of uranium the writer (Phil. Mag. p. 116, Jan. 1899) found that the rays from uranium consist of two kinds, differing greatly in penetrating power, which were called the α and β rays. Later, it was found that similar types of rays were emitted by thorium and radium. On the discovery that very penetrating rays were given out by uranium and thorium as well as by radium, the term γ was applied to them by the writer. The word "ray" has been retained in this work, although it is now settled that the α and β rays consist of particles projected with great velocity. The term is thus used in the same sense as by Newton, who applied it in the Principia to the stream of corpuscles which he believed to be responsible for the phenomenon of light. In some recent papers, the α and β rays have been called the α and β "emanations." This nomenclature cannot fail to lead to confusion, since the term "radio-active emanation" has already been generally adopted in radio-activity as applying to the material substance which gradually diffuses from thorium and radium compounds, and itself emits rays.
