"On account of its enormous activity the radiations from radium are very intense: a screen of zinc sulphide, brought near a few centigrams of radium bromide, is lighted up quite brightly in a dark room, while brilliant fluorescence is produced on a screen of platino-barium cyanide. An electroscope brought near is almost instantly discharged, while a photographic plate is immediately affected. At a distance of one meter, a day's exposure to the radium rays would produce a strong impression. The radiations from radium are analogous to those of uranium, and consist of the three types of rays: easily absorbed, penetrating, and very penetrating. Radium also gives rise to an emanation similar to that of thorium, but with a very much slower rate of decay. The radium emanation retains its activity for several weeks, while that of thorium lasts only a few minutes. The emanation obtained from a few centigrams of radium illuminates a screen of zinc sulphide with great brilliancy. The very penetrating rays of radium are able to light up an X ray screen in a dark room, after passage through several centimeters of lead and several inches of iron."
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Radio-activity
Radio-activity is a book written in 1904 (a 2nd edition was published in 1905) by Ernest Rutherford. This was the year prior to Albert Eistein's paper on the special theory of relativity would be published. The following quotes are from the 1st edition of Radio-activity, unless otherwise noted. Rutherford's theory of radioactivity was initially opposed by Pierre Curie, who believed, due to conservation of energy concerns, that radioactive substances causing the energy to be produced from the env
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