The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays Part 21

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emulsion. With the amount we have to go upon we cannot venture to particularise. It will be said that such an action must be in part of the nature of a chemical effect. This must be admitted, and, in so far as the rearrangement of molecular fabrics is involved, the result will doubtless be controlled by temperature conditions. The facts observed by Sir James Dewar support this.

But there is involved a fundamental process--the liberation of the electron by the electric force in the light wave, which is a physical effect, and which, upon the hypothesis of its reality as a factor in forming the latent image, appears to explain completely the outstanding photographic sensitiveness of the film at temperatures far below those at which chemical actions in general cease.

Again, we may a.s.sume that the electron--producing power of the special sensitiser or dye for the particular ray it absorbs is responsible, or responsible in part, for the special sensitiveness it confers upon the film. Sir Wm. Abney has shown that these sensitisers are active even if laid on as a varnish on the sensitive surface and removed before development. It must be remembered, however, that at temperatures of about -50 these sensitisers lose much of their influence on the film; as I have pointed out in a paper read before the Photographic Convention of 1894.

It. appears to me that on these views the curious phenomenon of recurrent reversals does not present a problem hopeless of explanation. The process of photo-

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ionisation const.i.tuting the latent image, where the ion is probably not immediately neutralised by chemical combination, presents features akin to the charging of a capacity--say a Leyden jar. There may be a rising potential between the groups of ions until ultimately a point is attained when there is a spontaneous neutralisation. I may observe that the phenomena of reversal appear to indicate that the change in the silver bromide molecule, whatever be its nature, is one of gradually increasing intensity, and finally attains a maximum when a return to the original condition occurs. The maximum is the point of most intense developable image. It is probable that the sensitiser--in this case the gelatin in which the bromide of silver is immersed--plays a part in the conditions of stability which are involved.

Of great interest in all our considerations and theories is the recent work of Wood on photographic reversal. The result of this work is--as I take it--to show that the stability of the latent image may be very various according to the mode of its formation.

Thus it appears that the sort of latent effect which is produced by pressure or friction is the least stable of any. This may be reversed or wiped out by the application of any other known form of photographic stimulus. Thus an exposure to X-rays will obliterate it, or a very brief exposure to light. The latent image arising from X-rays is next in order of increasing stability. Light action will remove this. Third in order is a very brief light-shock or sudden flash. This

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cannot be reversed by any of the foregoing modes of stimulation, but a long-continued undulatory stimulus, as from lamp-light, will reverse it. Last and most stable of all is the gradually built-up configuration due to long-continued light exposure. This can only be reversed by overdoing it according to the known facts of recurrent reversal. Wood takes occasion to remark that these phenomena are in bad agreement with the strain theory of Bose. We have, in fact, but the one resource--the allotropic modification of the haloid--whereby to explain all these orders of stability.

It appears to me that the elasticity of the electronic theory is greater. The state of the ionised system may be very various according as it arises from continued rhythmic effects or from unorganised shocks. The ionisation due to X-rays or to friction will probably be quite unorganised, that due to light more or less stable according to the gradual and gentle nature of the forces at work. I think we are ent.i.tled to conclude that on the whole there is nothing in Wood's beautiful experiments opposed to the photo-electric origin of photographic effects, but that they rather fall in with what might be antic.i.p.ated according to that theory.

When we look for further support to the views I have laid before you we are confronted with many difficulties. I have not as yet detected any electronic discharge from the film under light stimulus. This may be due to my defective experiments, or to a fact noted by Elster and Geitel concerning the photo-electric properties of gelatin.

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They obtained a vigorous effect from Balmain's luminous paint, but when this was mixed in gelatin there was no external effect.

Schmidt's results as to the continuance of photo-electric activity when bodies in general are dissolved in each other lead us to believe that an actual conservative property of the medium and not an effect of this on the luminous paint is here involved.

This conservative effect of the gelatin may be concerned with its efficacy as a sensitiser.

In the views I have laid before you I have endeavoured to show that the recent addition to our knowledge of the electron as an ent.i.ty taking part in many physical and chemical effects should be kept in sight in seeking an explanation of the mode of origin of the latent image.[1]

[1] For a more detailed account of the subject, and some ingenious extensions of the views expressed above, see _Photo-Electricity_, by H. Stanley Allen: Longmans, Green & Ca., 1913.

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PLEOCHROIC HALOES [1]

IT is now well established that a helium atom is expelled from certain of the radioactive elements at the moment of transformation. The helium atom or alpha ray leaves the transforming atom with a velocity which varies in the different radioactive elements, but which is always very great, attaining as much as 2 x 109 cms. per second; a velocity which, if unchecked, would carry the atom round the earth in less than two seconds. The alpha ray carries a positive charge of double the ionic amount.

When an alpha ray is discharged from the transforming element into a gaseous medium its velocity is rapidly checked and its energy absorbed. A certain amount of energy is thus transferred from the transforming atom to the gas. We recognise this energy in the gas by the altered properties of the latter; chiefly by the fact that it becomes a conductor of electricity. The mechanism by which this change is effected is in part known. The atoms of the gas, which appear to be freely penetrated by the alpha ray, are so far dismembered as to yield charged electrons or ions; the atoms remaining charged with an equal and opposite charge. Such a medium of

[1] Being the Huxley Lecture, delivered at the University of Birmingham on October 30th, 1912. Bedrock, Jan., 1913.

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free electric charges becomes a conductor of electricity by convection when an electromotive force is applied. The gas also acquires other properties in virtue of its ionisation. Under certain conditions it may acquire chemical activity and new combinations may be formed or existing ones broken up. When its initial velocity is expended the helium atom gives up its properties as an alpha ray and thenceforth remains possessed of the ordinary varying velocity of thermal agitation. Bragg and Kleeman and others have investigated the career of the alpha ray when its path or range lies in a gas at ordinary or obtainable conditions of pressure and temperature. We will review some of the facts ascertained.

The range or distance traversed in a gas at ordinary pressures is a few centimetres. The following table, compiled by Geiger, gives the range in air at the temperature of 15 C.:

cms. cms. cms.

Uranium 1 - 2.50 Thorium - 2.72 Radioactinium 4.60 Uranium 2 - 2.90 Radiothorium 3.87 Actinium X - 4.40 Ionium - 3.00 Thorium X - 4.30 Act Emanation 5.70 Radium - 3.30 Th Emanation 5.00 Actinium A - 6.50 Ra Emanation 4.16 Thorium A - 5.70 Actinium C - 5.40 Radium A - 4.75 Thorium C1 - 4.80 Radium C - 6.94 Thorium C2 - 8.60 Radium F - 3.77

It will be seen that the ray of greatest range is that proceeding from thorium C2, which reaches a distance of 8.6 cms. In the uranium family the fastest ray is

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that of radium C. It attains 6.94 cms. There is thus an appreciable difference between the ultimate distances traversed by the most energetic rays of the two families. The shortest ranges are those of uranium 1 and 2.

The ionisation effected by these rays is by no means uniform along the path of the ray. By examining the conductivity of the gas at different points along the path of the ray, the ionisation at these points may be determined. At the limits of the range the ionisation

{Fig. 13}

ceases. In this manner the range is, in fact, determined. The dotted curve (Fig. 13) depicts the recent investigation of the ionisation effected by a sheaf of parallel rays of radium C in air, as determined by Geiger. The range is laid out horizontally in centimetres. The numbers of ions are laid out vertically. The remarkable nature of the results will be at once apparent. We should have expected that the ray at the beginning of its path, when its velocity and kinetic energy were greatest, would have been more effective than towards the end of its range

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when its energy had almost run out. But the curve shows that it is just the other way. The lagging ray, about to resign its ionising properties, becomes a much more efficient ioniser than it was at first. The maximum efficiency is, however, in the case of a bundle of parallel rays, not quite at the end of the range, but about half a centimetre from it. The increase to the maximum is rapid, the fall from the maximum to nothing is much more rapid.

It can be shown that the ionisation effected anywhere along the path of the ray is inversely proportional to the velocity of the ray at that point. But this evidently does not apply to the last 5 or 10 mms. of the range where the rate of ionisation and of the speed of the ray change most rapidly. To what are the changing properties of the rays near the end of their path to be ascribed?

It is only recently that this matter has been elucidated.

When the alpha ray has sufficiently slowed down, its power of pa.s.sing right through atoms, without appreciably experiencing any effects from them, diminishes. The opposing atoms begin to exert an influence on the path of the ray, deflecting it a little. The heavier atoms will deflect it most. This effect has been very successfully investigated by Geiger. It is known as "scattering."

The angle of scattering increases rapidly with the decrease of velocity. Now the effect of the scattering will be to cause some of the rays to complete their ranges

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or, more accurately, to leave their direct line of advance a little sooner than others. In the beautiful experiments of C. T.

R. Wilson we are enabled to obtain ocular demonstration of the scattering. The photograph (Fig. 14.), which I owe to the kindness of Mr. Wilson, shows the deflection of the ray towards the end of its path. In

{Fig. 14}

this case the path of the ray has been rendered visible by the condensation of water particles under the influence of the ionisation; the atmosphere in which the ray travels being in a state of supersaturation with water vapour at the instant of the pa.s.sage of the ray. It is evident that if we were observing the ionisation along a sheaf of parallel rays, all starting with equal velocity,

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the effect of the bending of some of the rays near the end of their range must be to cause a decrease in the aggregate ionisation near the very end of the ultimate range. For, in fact, some of the rays complete their work of ionising at points in the gas before the end is reached. This is the cause, or at least an important contributory cause, of the decline in the ionisation near the end of the range, when the effects of a bundle of rays are being observed. The explanation does not suggest that the ionising power of any one ray is actually diminished before it finally ceases to be an alpha ray.

The full line in Fig. 13 gives the ionisation curve which it may be expected would be struck out by a single alpha ray. In it the ionisation goes on increasing till it abruptly ceases altogether, with the entire loss of the initial kinetic energy of the particle.

A highly remarkable fact was found out by Bragg. The effect of the atom traversed by the ray in checking the velocity of the ray is independent of the physical and chemical condition of the atom. He measured the "stopping power" of a medium by the distance the ray can penetrate into it compared with the distance to which it can penetrate in air. The less the ratio the greater is the stopping power. The stopping power of a substance is proportional to the square root of its atomic weight. The stopping power of an atom is not altered if it is in chemical union with another atom. The atomic weight is the one quality of importance. The physical

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state, whether the element is in the solid, liquid or gaseous state, is unimportant. And when we deal with molecules the stopping power is simply proportional to the sum of the square roots of the atomic weights of the atoms entering into the molecule. This is the "additive law," and it obviously enables us to calculate what the range in any substance of known chemical composition and density will be, compared with the range in air.

This is of special importance in connection with phenomena we have presently to consider. It means that, knowing the chemical composition and density of any medium whatsoever, solid, liquid or gaseous, we can calculate accurately the distance to which any particular alpha ray will penetrate. Nor have the temperature and pressure to which the medium is subjected any influence save in so far as they may affect the proximity of one atom to another.

The r.e.t.a.r.dation of the alpha ray in the atom is not affected.

This valuable additive law, however, cannot be applied in strictness to the amount of ionisation attending the ray. The form of the molecule, or more generally its volume, may have an influence upon this. Bragg draws the conclusion, from this fact as well as from the notable increase of ionisation with loss of speed, that the ionisation is dependent upon the time the ray spends in the molecule. The energy of the ray is, indeed, found to be less efficient in producing ionisation in the smaller atomm.