50 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Eamsay and Soddy, and later confirmed by Indrikson, by Debierne, 

 by Curie and Dewar, by Giesel and by Himstedt and Meyer. Helium, 

 a conventional element which is devoid of any evidence of chemical 

 affinity, is produced by or from radium, a conventional element, but 

 the most active substance known. This occurs when the emanation is 

 dry, and we have reason for assuming that the emanation may in 

 reality be an active allotropic form of helium, as ozone is of oxygen. 



Eecentty we have been thoroughly aroused again by Eamsay, who 

 in collaboration with Cameron 23 has not only verified the above state- 

 ment, but proved that when the emanation is allowed to traverse its 

 downward career in the presence of water, neon and not helium is the 

 gas produced. If the degradation of the emanation be in the presence 

 of a solution of a pure copper salt, sulphate or nitrate, argon and no 

 helium is produced. The emanation becomes one conventional ele- 

 ment or another, dependent upon its environment. Helium, neon and 

 argon, with the respective weights, 4, 20 and 40, are produced from 

 the supposititious allotrope of the one with the lowest atomic weight. 



We know of no case in which any one of these three obtained from 

 other sources has been converted into the other; nor have we been 

 informed as to whether or not the neon and argon thus produced from 

 the emanation subsequently change into helium. 



In this connection it may be stated that Meigen, 24 calling attention 

 to the amount of energy set free in the formation of helium — about 

 10 9 great calories for a gram-atom of helium — states that any attempts 

 at reversing this process are rendered hopeless. Nothing is hopeless 

 in science. In fact, many of Ramsay's most fruitful researches have 

 been in the investigation of the unlikely. Can it be, on the other hand, 

 however, that the emanation is in reality a compound of these gases 

 which are characterized by their inertness? Those who have worked 

 with compounds of the rarer elements well know that their scission 

 follows one direction or another, dependent upon ever so slight varia- 

 tions in procedure. If the emanation be, in fact, a compound, which is 

 not likely, it is an endothermic compound involving energy with an 

 order of magnitude far beyond anything with which we are familiar in 

 ordinary chemical reactions. The total heat given off by one cubic 

 centimeter of emanation is equal to about ten million gram calories, 

 or nearly four million times as much heat as produced by the explosion 

 of 1 c.c. of hydrogen and % c.c. oxygen. 



Eamsay determined the presence of these gases by their spectral 

 conduct. There can be no question of Eamsay's facts, for it is to be 

 assumed that he took the precaution of having the minute quantities 

 of the gases obtained and those in the comparison tubes under similar 



23 Journal Chemical Society (London), 91, 1605 (1907). 

 u Nature, 73, 389 (1906). 



