On the spectrum of the spontaneous luminous radiation of radium. Part IV.–Extension of the glow

Abstract

In our second paper we suggest “whether the β-rays, which are analogous to the cathode corpuscles, may not be mainly operative in exciting the radium glow. On this surmise it would be reasonable to expect some little extension of the glow outside the limit of the solid radium itself. We are unable to detect any halo of luminosity outside the limit of the solid radium bromide; the glow appears to end with sudden abruptness at the boundary surface of the radium.” We omitted to state that this conclusion was arrived at by eye observations. The radium was observed in the dark with a lens, and with a low-power microscope. The earlier photographs of the spectrum of the glow were taken, for the purpose of comparison spectra, with the height of the slit reduced by shutters so as to be within the width of the exposed radium bromide, and, therefore, these photographs would not show whether the bright bands of nitrogen extend into the air beyond the radium. Subsequently photographs were taken with the whole height of the slit, and on these we find that all the bands of nitrogen do extend to some little distance outside the radium salt. Our attention at the time being directed to other phenomena of the glow, we did not examine the photographs to see if the nitrogen bands extended beyond the radium.