The preparations of emanium are in some cases luminous, and a spectroscopic examination of this light has shown a number of bright lines31.
The distinctive character of the emanation of actinium, as well as of the other radio-active products to which it gives rise, coupled with the permanence of its activity, renders it very probable that actinium will prove to be a new radio-active element of very great activity. Although very active preparations of actinium have been obtained, it has not yet been found possible to free it from impurities. Consequently, no definite observations have been made on its chemical properties, and no new spectrum lines have been observed.
A more complete discussion of the radio-active and other properties of actinium is given in later chapters.
19. Polonium. Polonium was the first of the active substances obtained from pitchblende. It has been investigated in detail by its discoverer Mme Curie32. The pitchblende was dissolved in acid and sulphuretted hydrogen added. The precipitated sulphides contained an active substance, which, after separation of impurities, was found associated with bismuth. This active substance, which has been named polonium, is so closely allied in chemical properties to bismuth that it has so far been found impossible to effect a complete separation. Partial separation of polonium can be made by successive fractionations based on one of the following modes of procedure:
(1) Sublimation in a vacuum. The active sulphide is more volatile than that of bismuth. It is deposited as a black substance at those parts of the tube, where the temperature is between 250 and 300° C. In this way polonium of activity 700 times that of uranium was obtained.
(2) Precipitation of nitric acid solutions by water. The precipitated sub-nitrate is much more active than the part that remains in solution.
(3) Precipitation by sulphuretted hydrogen in a very acid hydrochloric acid solution. The precipitated sulphides are much more active than the salt which remains in solution.
For concentration of the active substance Mme Curie33 has made use of method (2). The process is, however, very slow and tedious, and is made still more complicated by the tendency to form precipitates insoluble either in strong or weak acids. After a large number of fractionations, a small quantity of matter was obtained, enormously active compared with uranium. On examination of the substance spectroscopically, only the bismuth lines were observed. A spectroscopic examination of the active bismuth by Demarçay and by Runge and Exner has led to the discovery of no new lines. On the other hand Sir William Crookes34 states that he found one new line in the ultra-violet, while Berndt35, working with polonium of activity 300, observed a large number of new lines in the ultra-violet. These results await further confirmation.
The polonium prepared by Mme Curie differs from the other radio-active bodies in several particulars. In the first place the radiations include only very easily absorbable rays. The two penetrating types of radiation given out by uranium, thorium, and radium are absent. In the second place the activity does not remain constant, but diminishes continuously with the time. Mme Curie states that different preparations of polonium had somewhat different rates of decay. In some cases, the activity fell to half value in about six months, and in others, about half value in eleven months.
20. The gradual diminution of the activity of polonium with time seemed at first sight to differentiate it from such substances as uranium and radium, the activity of which appeared fairly permanent. This