M. Becquerel established, after some hesitations natural in
the face of phenomena which seemed so contrary to accepted ideas, that
the radiating property was absolutely independent of phosphorescence,
that all the salts of uranium, even the uranous salts which are not
phosphorescent, give similar radiant effects, and that these phenomena
correspond to a continuous emission of energy, but do not seem to be
the result of a storage of energy under the influence of some external
radiation. Spontaneous and constant, the radiation is insensible to
variations of temperature and light.
The nature of these radiations was not immediately understood,[32] and
their properties seemed contradictory. This was because we were not
dealing with a single category of rays. But amongst all the effects
there is one which constitutes for the radiations taken as a whole, a
veritable process for the measurement of radioactivity. This is their
ionizing action on gases. A very complete study of the conductivity of
air under the influence of rays of uranium has been made by various
physicists, particularly by Professor Rutherford, and has shown that
the laws of the phenomenon are the same as those of the ionization due
to the action of the Roentgen rays.
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