solution for 25 seconds into the testing vessel. The air stream was stopped and the ionization current immediately measured. The solution was then allowed to stand undisturbed for 10 minutes. In that time the accumulation of the emanation again attained a practical maximum and again represented a steady state. The stream of air was blown through, as before, for 25 seconds, stopped and the current again measured. In both cases, the electrometer recorded a movement of 14·6 divisions per second. By blowing the same stream of air continuously through the solution the final current corresponded to 7·9 divisions per second or about one-half of that observed after the first rush.
Thus the rate of production of emanation is the same in the solid nitrate as in the solution, although the emanating power, i.e. the rate of escape of the emanation, is over 600 times greater in the solution than in the solid. It seems probable that the rate of production of emanation by thorium, like the rate of production of Ur X and Th X, is independent of conditions. The changes of emanating power of the various compounds by moisture, heat, and solution must therefore be ascribed solely to an alteration in the rate of escape of the emanation into the surrounding gas and not to an alteration in the rate of its production in the compound. On this view, it is easy to see that slight changes in the mode of preparation of a thorium compound may produce large changes in emanating power. Such effects have been often observed, and must be ascribed to slight physical changes in the precipitate. The fact that the rate of production of the emanation is independent of the physical or chemical conditions of the thorium, in which it is produced, is thus in harmony with what had previously been observed for the radio-active products Ur X and Th X. Source of the Thorium Emanation.
154. Some experiments of Rutherford and Soddy[1] will now
be considered, which show that the thorium emanation is produced,
not directly by the thorium itself, but by the active
product Th X.
- ↑ Rutherford and Soddy, Phil. Mag. Nov. 1902.
