Radium, its physics & therapeutics / by Dawson Turner.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Radium, its physics & therapeutics / by Dawson Turner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    RADIUM: ITS PHYSICS AND THERAPEUTICS CHAPTER I DISCOVERY OF RADIO-ACTIVITY—LIST OF RADIO-ACTIVE SUBSTANCES—CHARACTERISTIC EFFECTS—ALPHA RAYS The discovery of radio-activity was made by M. Henri Becquerel in Paris in the year 1896, about a year after the memorable discovery of the X rays by Professor Rontgen in Germany. The extraordinary properties of the X rays, and their evident connection with the fluorescence of the glass of the X-ray tube, led experimenters to examine other phosphorescent or fluorescent bodies for the same type of radiation. M. Henri Becquerel in particular studied the phos- phorescent substance uranium. A phosphorescent body is one which continues to glow in the dark after it has been exposed to a strong light; the luminous paint with which match-boxes are sometimes covered is an example. M. Becquerel placed a sensitive photographic plate in a light-tight envelope, covered