Page:Radio-activity.djvu/206

 consisting in part of electrons, is set up during the passage of the γ rays through matter. It is not improbable that the small charge observed is not a direct result of the charge carried by the γ rays, but is an indirect effect due to the secondary radiations emitted from the surface of bodies. There is no doubt that a thick lead vessel, completely enclosing a quantity of radium, acquires a small positive charge, but this result would follow whether the γ rays carry a charge or not, since the secondary radiations from the lead surface consist of projected particles which carry with them a negative charge.

On this corpuscular theory of the nature of the γ rays, each electron must have a large apparent mass, or otherwise it would be appreciably deflected by an intense magnetic field. The energy of motion of the electron must, in consequence, be very great, and, if the number of the electrons constituting the γ rays is of the same order of magnitude as the number of the β particles, a large heating effect is to be expected when the γ rays are stopped in matter. Paschen made some experiments on the heat emission of radium due to the γ rays; he concluded that the γ rays were responsible for more than half of the total heat emission of radium and carried away energy at the rate of over 100 gram calories per hour per gram of radium. This result was not confirmed by later experiments of Rutherford and Barnes, who found that the heating effect of the γ rays could not be more than a few per cent. of the total heat emission of radium. These results will be considered later in chapter XII.

The weight of evidence, both experimental and theoretical, at present supports the view that the γ rays are of the same nature as the X rays but of a more penetrating type. The theory that the X rays consist of non-periodic pulses in the ether, set up when the motion of electrons is arrested, has found most favour, although it is difficult to provide experimental tests to decide definitely the question. The strongest evidence in support of the wave nature of the X rays is derived from the experiments of Barkla, who found that the amount of secondary radiation set up by the X rays