of determining the absorption of the β rays. In the first method, the variation of the ionization current is observed in a testing vessel when the active matter is covered by screens differing in material and thickness. This ionization in the vessel depends upon two quantities, viz. the number of β particles which pass through the matter and also upon the number of ions produced by them per unit path. In the absence of any definite information in regard to the variation of ionization by the electron with its velocity, no very definite conclusions can be drawn from such experiments.
The advent of pure radium-bromide has made it possible to determine the actual number of electrons which are absorbed in their passage through a definite thickness of matter, by measuring the negative charge carried by the issuing rays. Experiments of this character have been made by Seitz and will be considered later.
These two methods of determining the absorption of β rays are quite distinct in principle, and it is not to be expected that the values of the coefficients of absorption obtained in the two cases should be the same. The whole question of the absorption of electrons by matter is very complicated, and the difficulty is still further increased by the complexity of the β rays emitted by the radio-active substances. Many of the results obtained by different methods, while pointing to the same general conclusion, are quantitatively in wide disagreement. Before any definite advance can be made to a better understanding of the mechanism of absorption, it will be necessary to determine the variation of the ionization with the speed of the electron over a very wide range. Some work has already been done in this direction but not between sufficiently wide limits.
Ionization method.
We shall first consider the results obtained on the absorption of β rays by measuring the variation of the ionization current, when screens of different thickness are placed over the active substance. When the active matter is covered with aluminium foil of thickness ·1 mm., the current in a testing vessel such as is shown in Fig. 17, is due almost entirely to the β rays. If a uranium compound is used, it is found that the saturation current decreases with the thickness of matter traversed nearly according to an exponential law. Taking the saturation current as a measure of the intensity of the rays, the intensity I after passing through a thickness d of matter is given by
