but with a very much slower rate of decay. The radium emanation retains its activity for several weeks, while that of thorium lasts only a few minutes. The emanation obtained from a few centigrams of radium illuminates a screen of zinc sulphide with great brilliancy. The very penetrating rays of radium are able to light up an X ray screen in a dark room, after passage through several centimetres of lead and several inches of iron.
As in the case of uranium or thorium, the photographic action is mainly due to the penetrating or cathodic rays. The radiographs obtained with radium are very similar to those obtained with X rays, but lack the sharpness and detail of the latter. The rays are unequally absorbed by different kinds of matter, the absorption varying approximately as the density. In photographs of the hand the bones do not stand out as in X ray photographs.
Curie and Laborde have shown that the compounds of radium possess the remarkable property of always keeping their temperature several degrees above the temperature of the surrounding air. Each gram of radium radiates an amount of energy corresponding to 100 gram-calories per hour. This and other properties of radium are discussed in detail in chapters V and XII.
16. Compounds of radium. When first prepared in the
solid state, all the salts of radium—the chloride, bromide, acetate,
sulphate, and carbonate—are very similar in appearance to the
corresponding salts of barium, but in time they gradually become
coloured. In chemical properties the salts of radium are practically
the same as those of barium, with the exception that the
chloride and bromide of radium are less soluble in water than the
corresponding salts of barium. All the salts of radium are naturally
phosphorescent. The phosphorescence of impure radium
preparations is in some cases very marked.
All the radium salts possess the property of causing rapid colorations of the glass vessel which contains them. For feebly active material the colour is usually violet, for more active material a yellowish-brown, and finally black.
17. Actinium. The discovery of radium in pitchblende gave
a great impetus to the chemical examination of uranium residues,
and a systematic search early led to the detection of several
