Open AccessRate of emission of α-particles from uranium and its products
Author(s) -
Jeffrey N. Brown
Publication year - 1910
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london series a containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1910.0066
Subject(s) - uranium , radium , scintillation , particle (ecology) , zinc , materials science , radiochemistry , mineralogy , chemistry , physics , optics , metallurgy , geology , detector , oceanography
The object of this investigation was to find directly how manyα -particles are emitted per second per gramme of uranium in equilibrium with all its products. The number can be calculated from the rate of emission of the particles from radium, determined by Rutherford, but no direct experiment has previously been performed with uranium as it occurs in Nature. To estimate the number ofα -particles emitted, their well-known property of producing scintillations when they strike a zinc sulphide screen (eachα -particle producing one scintillation) was employed. The scintillations were observed through a microscope provided with a special objective.
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