Page:Radio-activity.djvu/139

 direction of the rays, the ionization in the testing vessel due to the rays steadily decreases as the strength of the field increases, and in a strong field it is reduced to a very small fraction of its original value. In this case the rays are bent so that none of them enter the testing vessel.

Examined in this way, it has been found that the β rays of uranium, thorium, and radium consist entirely of rays readily deflected by a magnetic field. The rays from polonium consist entirely of α rays, the deviation of which can be detected only in very intense magnetic fields.

When the screen covering the active material is removed, in a strong magnetic field, the ionization in the vessel is mainly due to the α rays. On account of the slight deviation of the α rays under ordinary experimental conditions, a still greater increase of the magnetic field does not appreciably alter the current due to them in the testing vessel.

The action of a magnetic field on a very active substance like radium is easily shown by the electrical method, as the ionization current due to the deviable rays is large. With substances of small activity like uranium and thorium, the ionization current due to the deviable rays is very small, and a sensitive electrometer or an electroscope is required to determine the variation, in a magnetic field, of the very small current involved. This is especially the case for thorium oxide, which gives out only about 1/5 of the amount of deviable rays given out by the same weight of uranium oxide.

79. Experiments with a fluorescent screen. The β rays from a few milligrams of pure radium bromide produce intense fluorescence in barium platino-cyanide and other substances which can be made luminous under the influence of the cathode rays. Using a centigram of radium bromide, the luminosity on a screen, placed upon it, is bright enough to be observed in daylight. With the aid of such a screen in a dark room many of the properties of the β rays may be simply illustrated and their complex nature clearly shown. A small quantity of radium is placed in the bottom of a short, narrow, lead tube open at one end. This is placed between the pole pieces of an electromagnet, and