law, falling to half value in 28 minutes. P. Curie and Danne showed that the matter B is much more volatile than C. The former is completely volatilized at about 600° C., while the latter is not completely volatilized even at a temperature of 1300° C. The fact that the matter C, left behind when B is completely volatilized, decays at once to half value in 28 minutes shows that the matter C itself and not B is half transformed in 28 minutes.
Curie and Danne also found that the rate of decay of the active matter varied with the temperature to which the platinum wire had been subjected. At 630° C. the rate of decay was normal, at 1100° C. the activity fell to half value in about 20 minutes, while at 1300° C. it fell to about half value in about 25 minutes.
I have repeated the experiments of Curie and Danne and obtained very similar results. It was thought possible that the measured rate of decay observed after heating might be due to a permanent increase in the rate of volatilization of C at ordinary temperatures. This explanation, however, is not tenable, for it was found that the activity decreased at the same rate whether the activity of the wire was tested in a closed tube or in the open with a current of air passed over it.
These results are of great importance, for they indicate that the rate of change of the product C is not a constant, but is affected by differences of temperature. This is the first case where temperature has been shown to exert an appreciable influence on the rate of change of any radio-active product.
227. Volatility of radium B at ordinary temperature.
Miss Brooks[1] has observed that a body, made active by exposure
to the radium emanation, possesses the power of exciting secondary
activity on the walls of a vessel in which it is placed. This
activity was usually about 1/1000 of the whole, but the amount
was increased to about 1/200 if the active wire was washed in
water and dried over a gas flame—the method often adopted to
free the wire of any trace of the radium emanation. This effect of
producing activity was most marked immediately after removal of
the wire from the emanation, and was almost inappreciable ten
minutes afterwards.
- ↑ Miss Brooks, Nature, July 21, 1904.
