again under conditions probably depending on the kind of glass employed. Since α particles are projected from the emanation and also from two of the rapidly changing products which arise from it, the volume of helium should, on this view, be three times the initial volume of the emanation. If the helium produced escaped from the walls of the tube into the gas, the apparent volume of the gas in the capillary should increase to three times the initial volume in a month’s interval, for during that time the emanation itself has been transformed into a solid type of matter deposited on the walls of the tube.
Ramsay and Soddy concluded from their experiments that the maximum volume of emanation to be obtained from 1 gram of radium was about 1 cubic millimetre at standard pressure and temperature, and that the emanation was produced from 1 gram of radium at the rate of 3 × 10-6 c. mm. per second. This amount is in very good agreement with the calculated value, and is a strong indication of the general correctness of the theory on which the calculations are based.
173. Spectrum of the emanation. After the separation of the emanation and the determination of its volume, Ramsay and Soddy made numerous attempts to obtain its spectrum. In some of the earlier experiments several bright lines were seen for a short time, but these lines were soon masked