Radium, discovery emanation

Recent discoveries would appear to suggest that this mysterious Fire of Life, which, whatever else it may have been, was evidently a force and no true fire, since it did not burn, owed its origin to the emanations from radium, or some kindred substance. Although in the year 1885, Mr. Holly would have known nothing of the properties of these marvelous rays or emanations, doubtless Ayesha was familiar with them and their enormous possibilities, of which our chemists and scientific men have, at present, but explored the fringe. (1905, 167)... 

Marie (NLP 1903, NLC 1911 ) and Pierre (NLP 1903 ) Curie took up further study of Becquerel s discovery. In their studies, they made use of instrumental apparatus, designed by Pierre Curie and his brother, to measure the uranium emanations based on the fact that these emanations turn air into a conductor of electricity. In 1898, they tested an ore named pitchblende from which the element uranium was extracted and found that the electric current produced by the pitchblende in their measuring instrument was much stronger than that produced by pure uranium. They then undertook the herculean task of isolating demonstrable amounts of two new radioactive elements, polonium and radium, from the pitchblende. In their publications, they first introduced the term radio-activity to describe the phenomenon originally discovered by Becquerel. After P. Curie s early death, M. Curie did recognize that radioactive decay (radioactivity) is an atomic property. Further understanding of radioactivity awaited the contributions of E. Rutherford. 

M. d Arsonval, a member of the Academy of Sciences, has just presented a lecture before said Academy concerning the discovery of rays emanating from the human body and made visible by means of radium lighting [lumiere du radium]. Two researchers from the city of Nancy, Messers Charpentier and Blondlot, are the first who have used this procedure to perceive these rays, which they have called N after the initial letter of the word Nancy. Blondlot recounts how, while making a study of X-rays, they began to notice the emission of other rays which... 

Sir William Ramsay, 1852-1916. Scottish chemist and physicist. Discoverer of the inert gases. Lord Rayleigh was a co-discoverer of argon, and M. W. Travis collaborated in the discovery of krypton, neon, and xenon. After F. E. Dorn had discovered radon, or radium emanation, Ramsay and Whidaw Gray determined its density and proved it to be the heaviest member of the argon family. 

Activation analysis was first applied by von Hevesy and Levi two years after the discovery of artificial radioactivity (38). Determination of 0.1% dysprosium in rare earth mixtures was made by activation with neutrons from a 300-millicurie radium emanation-beryllium neutron source. The 2.3-hr half-life induced activity due to Dy was compared with that induced in mixtures of known dysprosium content. A similar method was used to determine europium in gadolinium. 

Studying water radiolysis is well established like the discovery of radioactive radiation (radium emanation). Without knowing the transient processes, the generic reaction equation ... 

Before the discovery of polonium and radium there were seven empty slots in the periodic system between bismuth and uranium. While the number of newly found radioactive elements was small there were no problems with their location in the periodic system. But emanations were a baffling problem. They had identical properties and therefore could not be assigned to different boxes of the periodic system, for instance, to the two empty boxes corresponding to the unknown heavy analogues of iodine and cesium. This would be an unnatural thing to do. 

Marie and Pierre Curie examined the radiation emitted by radium. They found that all substances near the radiation source became radioactive themselves. The activity even remained some time after the removal of the emitting radium. It was questioned whether there is some radioactive force that was transferred with the radiation and was induced in the receiving substance. In 1900 F. Dom in Halle, Germany, reported on a study of an isotope emanating from radium and, because of that, certainly incorrectly, was credited with the discovery of radon. In fact Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) and Frederick Soddy (1877-1956) were the first to isolate radon and also the first to really understand the nature of radon. In the first decade of 1900 they worked at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and carried out very comprehensive work on radioactivity [52.10]. They discovered that the emanation from radium was a gas of the same type as the noble gases. Ramsay at University College in London completed the spectral work. He showed that the spectrum of radon resembled that of xenon. He also showed that the formation of radon was accompanied by the simultaneous production of helium, as he also observed its spectrum. This observa-... 

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