ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the subject of the transformation of radium and concentrates more on chemical side. Madame Marie Curie made a systematic examination of radiating power of uranium and thorium minerals, and found that the former showed a radiating power of activity between four and five times greater than that to be expected from their content of uranium. Radium has chemical properties very similar to those of barium. By the method of fractional crystallisation of the chloride or bromide, the radium is obtained free from barium. There are three distinct types of radiation emitted, which are known as the α, β and γ rays. The discharging effect due to an uncovered layer of radium is mainly due to α rays. The rate of transformation is slow to determine by direct activity measurements over an interval of a few years it has been shown by Boltwood by a direct experimental method that radium is half transformed in about 2000 years.
