The property of intrinsic luminosity is attribute of radon in all states of aggregation, and is one proof of the energy modifications which accompany its disintegration. The depth of the phosphorescence is greatest in the strong – presumably because of the lesser volume occupied – however each the gas and the liquid glow strongly. The colour of the light emitted by the stable varies from steel-blue at the melting-level to orange-red at lower temperatures. Heat can be given out through the disintegration of the emanation.
The continual emission of energy is also shown by the slow decomposition of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, and water uncovered to the motion of radon. It has additionally been said that when solutions of compounds of the elements of the carbon group (silicon, titanium, zirconium, thorium, and lead) are subjected to the action of radon, carbon dioxide is always produced. This suggests a possibility that there could also be a breaking-down of the molecules of those components with formation of carbon, the lowest member of the series. Radon will cause the oxidation of wet mercury, and turns atypical white glass violet.
It was at one time supposed that a change of copper into lithium and of water into neon had been observed, but the validity of those observations is severely open to question.
For one or days after its isolation radon undergoes a sluggish contraction to about one-half its original volume; afterwards it slowly expands to about 3 to 3.5 occasions the original volume. This change corresponds to a change in the spectrum, that of radon disappearing completely after three-four days, and giving place to that of helium.
The cause of the contraction is obscure, but it has been observed in each sample hitherto prepared, and is, maybe, resulting from impurities. The sluggish enlargement which takes place afterwards may be satisfactorily explained on the hypothesis that the α-particles given out throughout the radioactive change of the radon have such a high velocity that they are pressured into the partitions of the containing vessel and are only developed once more quite slowly. It has been discovered that if radon is confined in a glass tube the partitions of which have a thickness less than the range of its a-particles in glass, an accumulation of helium may be noticed within the outer space. This supports the preceding explanation of the sluggish improve in volume, and additional proves conclusively the id of the helium atom with the α-particle. The period of half-change of radon is 3.75 days.
It might be talked about right here that the evolution of helium from radium was first proved by Ramsay and Soddy, and confirmed by Himstedt and Meyer: the statement that the radioactive components are parts undergoing decomposition was first made by Geoffrey Martin. Assuming that 5 α-particles are expelled throughout the full disintegration of one atom of radium, the amount of helium produced per day from 1 gram of radium needs to be 0.439 cu. mm. at N.T.P.: experimental determinations of the amount have given figures in good agreement with this result. Since then its production throughout many different radioactive changes has been observed.
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