dissolved.
153. Similar results hold for thorium, but, on account of the rapid loss of activity of the emanation, the amount of emanation occluded in a non-emanating compound is very small compared with that observed for radium. If the production of the thorium emanation proceeds at the same rate under all conditions, the solution of a solid non-emanating compound should be accompanied by a rush of emanation greater than that subsequently produced. With the same notation as before we have for the thorium emanation,
This result was tested as follows: a quantity of finely powdered thorium nitrate, of emanating power ¹⁄₂₀₀ of ordinary thoria, was dropped into a Drechsel bottle containing hot water and the emanation rapidly swept out into the testing vessel by a current of air. The ionization current rose quickly to a maximum, but soon fell again to a steady value; showing that the amount of emanation released when the nitrate dissolves, is greater than the subsequent amount produced from the solution.
The rapid loss of the activity of the thorium emanation makes a quantitative comparison like that for radium very difficult. By slightly altering the conditions of the experiment, however, a definite proof was obtained that the rate of production of emanation is the same in the solid compound as in the solution. After dropping in the nitrate, a rapid air stream was blown through the solution for 25 seconds into the testing vessel. The air stream was stopped and the ionization current immediately measured. The solution was then allowed to stand undisturbed for 10 minutes. In that time the accumulation of the emanation again attained a practical maximum and again represented a steady state. The stream of air was blown through, as before, for 25 seconds, stopped and the current again measured. In both cases, the electrometer recorded a movement of 14·6 divisions per second. By blowing the same stream of air continuously through the solution the final current corresponded to 7·9 divisions per second or about one-half of that observed after the first rush.
Thus the rate of production of emanation is the same in the solid nitrate as in the solution, although the emanating power, i.e. the rate of escape of the emanation, is over 600 times greater in the solution than in the solid.
It seems probable that the rate of production of emanation by thorium, like the rate of production of Ur X and Th X, is independent of conditions. The changes of emanating power of the various compounds by moisture, heat, and solution must therefore be ascribed solely to an alteration in the rate of escape of the emanation into the surrounding gas and not to an alteration in the rate of its production in the compound.
On this view, it is easy to see that slight changes in the mode of preparation of a thorium compound