The inactive uranium and the active barium were laid aside; but, on examining them a year later, it was found that the uranium had completely regained its activity, while that of the barium had completely disappeared. The loss of activity of uranium was thus only temporary in character.
In the above experiments, the activity of uranium was examined by the photographic method. The photographic action produced by uranium is due almost entirely to the β rays. The α rays, in comparison, have little if any effect. Now the radiation from Ur X consists entirely of β rays, and is consequently photographically very active. If the activity of uranium had been measured electrically without any screen over it, the current observed would have been due very largely to the α rays, and little change would have been observed after the removal of Ur X, since only the constituent responsible for the β rays was removed. This important point is discussed in more detail in [section 205].
128. Thorium X. Rutherford and Soddy[[227]], working with thorium compounds, found that an intensely active constituent could be separated from thorium by a single chemical operation. If ammonia is added to a thorium solution, the thorium is precipitated, but a large amount of the activity is left behind in the filtrate, which is chemically free from thorium. This filtrate was evaporated to dryness, and the ammonium salts driven off by ignition. A small residue was obtained which, weight for weight, was in some cases several thousand times more active than the thorium from which it was obtained, while the activity of the precipitated thorium was reduced to less than one half of its original value. This active constituent was named Th X from analogy to Crookes’ Ur X.
The active residue was found to consist mainly of impurities from the thorium; the Th X could not be examined chemically, and probably was present only in minute quantity. It was also found that an active constituent could be partly separated from thorium oxide by shaking it with water for some time. On filtering the water, and evaporating down, a very active residue was obtained which was analogous in all respects to Th X.
On examining the products a month later, it was found that the Th X was no longer active, while the thorium had completely regained its activity. A long series of measurements was then undertaken to examine the time-rate of these processes of decay and recovery of activity.
Fig. 47.
The results are shown graphically in [Fig. 47], where the final activity of the thorium and the initial activity of the Th X are in each case taken as 100. The ordinates represent the activities determined by means of the ionization current, and the abscissae represent the time in days. It will be observed that both curves are irregular for the first two days. The activity of the Th X increased at first, while the activity of the thorium diminished. Disregarding these initial irregularities of the curves, which will be explained in detail in [section 208], it will be seen that, after the first two days, the time taken for the thorium to recover half its lost activity is about equal to the time taken by the Th X to lose half its activity. This time in each case is about four days. The percentage proportion of the activity regained by the thorium, over any given interval, is approximately equal to the percentage proportion of the activity lost by the Th X during the same interval.
Fig. 48.