The current obtained with orangite (native oxide of thorium) varied greatly with the thickness of the layer. By increasing this thickness from 0·25 m.m. to 6 m.m. the current increased from 1·8 to 2·3.
All the minerals which showed radio-activity contained uranium or thorium: their activity is therefore not surprising, but the intensity of the action in certain cases is unexpected. Thus pitchblendes (ores of uranium oxide) are found which are four times as active as metallic uranium. Chalcolite (double phosphate of copper and uranium) is twice as active as uranium. Autunite (phosphate of uranium and calcium) is as active as uranium. These facts do not accord with previous conclusions, according to which no mineral should be so active as thorium or uranium.
To throw light on this point, I prepared artificial chalcolite by the process of Debray, starting with the pure products. The process consists in mixing a solution of uranium nitrate with a solution of copper phosphate in phosphoric acid and warming to 50° or 60°. After some time, crystals of chalcolite appear in the liquid.
Chalcolite thus obtained possesses a perfectly normal activity, given by its composition; it is two and a-half times less active than uranium.
It therefore appeared probable that if pitchblende, chalcolite, and autunite possess so great a degree of activity, these substances contain a small quantity of a strongly radio-active body, differing from uranium and thorium and the simple bodies actually known. I thought that if this were indeed the case, I might hope to extract this substance from the ore by the ordinary methods of chemical analysis.
The results of the investigation of radio-active minerals, announced in the preceding chapter, led M. Curie and myself to endeavour to extract a new radio-active body from pitchblende. Our method of procedure could only be based on radio-activity, as we know of no other property of the hypothetical substance. The following is the method pursued for a research based on radio-activity:—The radio-activity of a compound is determined, and a chemical decomposition of this compound is effected; the radio-activity of all the products obtained is determined, having regard to the proportion in which the radio-active substance is distributed among them. In this way, an indication is obtained, which may to a certain extent be compared to that which spectrum analysis furnishes. In order to obtain comparable figures, the activity of the substances must be determined in the solid form well dried.