quantity of the thorium emanation. A circular hole about 50 cms. in diameter and 2 metres deep was dug in the ground. A number of wires were wound on an insulated frame and suspended in the hole, the top of the hole then being covered over. The wire was charged negatively by a Wimshurst machine. After a long exposure the excited activity on the wire diminished at a rate that showed it to be a mixture of the excited activities of thorium and radium.
A very large amount of work has been done in examining various hot and mineral springs for the presence of the radium emanation, and it is not possible here to refer more than briefly to a few of the very numerous papers that have been published on this subject both in Europe and America. H. S. Allen and Lord Blythswood[1] have observed that the hot springs at Bath and Buxton gave off a radio-active emanation. This was confirmed by Strutt[2], who found that the escaping gases contained the radium emanation, and also that the mud deposited from the springs contained a trace of radium salts. These results are of considerable interest, for Lord Rayleigh has observed that helium is contained among the gases evolved by the springs. It appears probable that the helium observed is produced from the radium or radio-active deposits through which the water flows. Many mineral and hot springs which are famous for their curative properties have been found to contain traces of radium and also considerable amounts of radium emanation. It has been suggested that the curative properties may be due to some extent to the presence of these minute quantities of radium.
Himstedt[3] found that the thermal springs at Baden Baden contained the radium emanation, while Elster and Geitel[4] examined the deposits formed by these springs and found them to contain small quantities of radium salts. Results of a similar character were obtained for a number of waters in Germany by Dorn[5], Schenck[6], and H. Mache[7].
- ↑ H. S. Allen and Lord Blythswood, Nature, 68, p. 343, 1903; 69, p. 247, 1904.
- ↑ Strutt, Proc. Roy. Soc. 73, p. 191, 1904.
- ↑ Himstedt, Ann. d. Phys. 13, p. 573, 1904.
- ↑ Elster and Geitel, Phys. Zeit. 5, No. 12, p. 321, 1904.
- ↑ Dorn, Abhandl. d. Natur. Ges. Halle, 25, p. 107, 1904.
- ↑ Schenck, Thesis Univ. Halle, 1904.
- ↑ Mache, Wien. Ber. 113, p. 1329, 1904.
