times faster than by thorium, it follows that the amount of emanation to be obtained from 1 gram of thorium is not greater than 10^{-10} of the amount from an equal weight of radium, i.e. its volume is not greater than 10^{-13} c.c. at the ordinary pressure and temperature. Even with large quantities of thorium, the amount of emanation is too small ever to be detected by its volume.
172. Volume of the emanation from radium. The
evidence already considered points very strongly to the conclusion
that the emanation possesses all the properties of a chemically
inert gas of high molecular weight.
Since the emanation continuously breaks up, and is transformed into a solid type of matter, which is deposited on the surface of bodies, the volume of the emanation, when separated from radium, should contract at the same rate as it loses its activity, i.e. it should decrease to half value in about four days. The amount of emanation to be obtained from a given quantity of radium is a maximum when the rate of production of new emanation balances its rate of change. This condition is practically attained when the emanation has been allowed to collect for an interval of one month. The probable volume of the emanation to be obtained from 1 gram of radium was early calculated on certain assumptions, and from data then available the writer[1] deduced that the volume of the emanation from 1 gram of radium lay between ·06 and ·6 cubic millimetre at atmospheric pressure and temperature, and was probably nearer the latter value. The volume to be expected on the latest data has been discussed in the preceding section and shown to be about ·82 cubic mm. The volume of the emanation is thus very small, but not too small to be detected if several centigrams of radium are available. This has been proved to be the case by Ramsay and Soddy[2] who, by very careful experiment, finally succeeded in isolating a small quantity of the emanation and in determining its volume. The experimental method employed by them will now be briefly described.
