The electron tells the interesting story of these rays, and relates the experiences of some fellow-electrons who escaped from within a radium atom.
We electrons were amused at the stir which we unconsciously caused throughout the civilised world. We had done nothing different from what we had been doing for ages, but a few men had been taking note of what we were about, and when the phenomena to which I refer became known to the world, many wild rumours were circulated.
One of these rumours was to the effect that steam-engines and their expensive furnaces were to disappear very quickly. If the two last words had been omitted—I should not say that the prophecy is untrue, but man has a long way to travel yet before reaching that goal. My fellows within the atoms have sufficient energy to supply all mankind with power if he could but unlock even a small fraction of it.
Another statement was that this newly discovered substance, radium, could cure some diseases which man had believed to be incurable. All I shall say about this is that the statement was an exaggerated one.
Then it was said that radium disproved much of man's scientific knowledge, but instead of that being so, we electrons have greatly extended man's knowledge by our radio-active actions. If any man believed the atoms of matter to be eternal, we certainly disproved that. Here, in radium, man could see atoms going to pieces.
I have questioned a fellow-electron who escaped from a radium atom as to what upset their equilibrium, but I find that he does not know, or he pretends not to know. All he has told me is that he was flung off suddenly from within the atom with great energy, for he had been revolving at a tremendous speed. In his sudden flight he passed some newly formed helium atoms, which contained many of those electrons who had been his co-partners in the former radium atom. Being an electron, he was travelling at a far greater speed than these flying atoms of matter, but he assures me that these helium atoms were going faster than atoms can travel under any other circumstances.
Another thing that this escaped electron told me was that when he and his fellow-electrons made a sudden start on leaving the atom of radium they caused a proper splash in the surrounding æther, just such as we electrons produce when we are suddenly stopped in an X-ray tube. Man observed these rays proceeding from radium, but, not knowing the cause of them, he called them gamma rays. We can, of course, produce radiographs when these rays fall upon photographic plates. Indeed, some of my fellow-electrons, when escaping from radium, have produced rays sufficient to penetrate a six-inch boulder and affect a photographic plate lying beneath the boulder. In time man recognised these rays as X-rays.
Man did not find only these rays—he discovered that electrons were escaping, but before he had recognised what we were, he had named us beta rays. These fast-flying electrons have had experiences which never fall to electrons except when escaping from an atom. Their velocity is so great that they can be shot right through a sheet of aluminium foil. If these escaped electrons are allowed to settle on any object, they will necessarily cause an overcrowding, or, in other words, the object will become negatively electrified.
The one thing that puzzled man most was to find out what the helium atoms were. He had named them alpha rays, but as he found he could not get them to penetrate even a thin sheet of paper, he was confident that they must be atoms of matter. It was only when he had gathered sufficient to examine the spectrum that he found these to be helium atoms.