has been deposited from water flowing through it, possibly in past times. The presence of radium is not surprising, since crystals of autunite have been found about 40 miles distant, and probably there are deposits containing uranium in that region. This result is of interest, as suggesting that radium may be removed with water and deposited by physical or chemical action some distance away.
It will be shown in the next chapter that radium has been found very widely distributed over the surface of the earth, but generally in very small quantities.
263. Does the radio-activity of radium depend upon its concentration? We have seen that the radio-active constant λ
of any product is independent of the concentration of the product.
This result has been established over a very wide range for some
substances, and especially for the radium emanation. No certain
difference in the rate of decay of the emanation has been observed,
although the amount present in unit volume of the air has been
varied a millionfold.
It has been suggested by J. J. Thomson[1] that the rate of disintegration of radium may be influenced by its own radiations. This, at first sight, appears very probable, for a small mass of a pure radium compound is subjected to an intense bombardment by the radiations arising from it, and the radiations are of such a character that they might be expected to produce a breaking up of the atoms of matter which they traverse. If this be the case, the radio-activity of a given quantity of radium should be a function of its concentration, and should be greater in the solid state than when disseminated through a large mass of matter.
The writer has made an experiment to examine this question. Two glass tubes were taken, in one of which was placed a few milligrams of pure radium bromide in a state of radio-active equilibrium, and in the other a solution of barium chloride. The two tubes were connected near the top by a short cross tube, and the open ends sealed off. The activity of the radium in the solid state was tested immediately after its introduction by placing it in a definite position near an electroscope made of thin metal of the type shown in Fig. 12. The increased rate of discharge of the
- ↑ J. J. Thomson, Nature, April 30, p. 601, 1903.
