118. Thermo-luminescence. E. Wiedemann and Schmidt[[196]] have shown that certain bodies after exposure to the cathode rays or the electric spark become luminous when they are heated to a temperature much below that required to cause incandescence. This property of thermo-luminescence is most strikingly exhibited in certain cases where two salts, one of which is much in excess of the other, are precipitated together. It is to be expected that such bodies would also acquire the property when exposed to the β or cathodic rays of radium. This has been found to be the case by Wiedemann[[197]]. Becquerel showed that fluor-spar, exposed to the radium rays, was luminous when heated. The glass tubes in which radium is kept are rapidly blackened. On heating the tube, a strong luminosity is observed, and the coloration to a large extent disappears. The peculiarity of many of these bodies lies in the fact that the property of becoming luminous when heated is retained for a long interval of time after the body is removed from the influence of the exciting cause. It appears probable that the rays cause chemical changes in these bodies, which are permanent until heat is applied. A portion of the chemical energy is then released in the form of visible light.
Physical actions.
119. Some electric effects. Radium rays have the same effect as ultra-violet light and Röntgen rays in increasing the facility with which a spark passes between electrodes. Elster and Geitel[[198]] showed that if two electrodes were separated by a distance such that the spark just refused to pass, on bringing near a specimen of radium the spark at once passes. This effect is best shown with short sparks from a small induction coil. The Curies have observed that radium completely enveloped by a lead screen 1 cm. thick produces a similar action. The effect in that case is due to the γ rays alone. This action of the rays can be very simply illustrated by connecting two spark-gaps with the induction coil in parallel. The spark-gap of one circuit is adjusted so that the discharge just refuses to pass across it, but passes by the other. When some radium is brought near the silent spark-gap, the spark at once passes and ceases in the other[[199]].
Hemptinne[[200]] found that the electrodeless discharge in a vacuum tube began at a higher pressure when a strong preparation of radium was brought near the tube. In one experiment the discharge without the rays began at 51 mms. but with the radium rays at 68 mms. The colour of the discharge was also altered.
Himstedt[[201]] found that the resistance of selenium was diminished by the action of radium rays in the same way as by ordinary light.
F. Henning[[202]] examined the electrical resistance of a barium chloride solution containing radium of activity 1000, but could observe no appreciable difference between it and a similar pure solution of barium chloride. This experiment shows that the action of the rays from the radium does not produce any appreciable change in the conductivity of the barium solution.
Kohlrausch and Henning[[203]] have recently made a detailed examination of the conductivity of pure radium bromide solutions, and have obtained results very similar to those for the corresponding barium solutions. Kohlrausch[[204]] found that the conductivity of water exposed to the radiations from radium increased more rapidly than water which had not been exposed. This increase of conductivity may have been due to an increase of the conductivity of the water itself, or to an increased rate of solution of the glass of the containing vessel.
Specimens of strongly active material have been employed to obtain the potential at any point of the atmosphere. The ionization due to the active substance is so intense that the body to which it is attached rapidly takes up the potential of the air surrounding the active substance. In this respect it is more convenient and rapid in its action than the ordinary taper or water dropper, but on account of the disturbance of the electric field by the strong ionization produced, it is probably not so accurate a method as that of the water dropper.
120. Effect on liquid and solid dielectrics. P. Curie[[205]] made the very important observation that liquid dielectrics became partial conductors under the influence of radium rays. In these experiments the radium, contained in a glass tube, was placed in an inner thin cylinder of copper. This was surrounded by a concentric copper cylinder, and the liquid to be examined filled the space between. A strong electric field was applied, and the current through the liquid measured by means of an electrometer.
The following numbers illustrate the results obtained: