Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Radioactive Substances and Their Radiations
In 1940 I published through then Cambridge University Press a collected account of radio-active phenomena entitled Radioactivity. This was followed a year later by a revised and enlarged edition. In the seven years that have elapsed since the latter publication there has been a steady and rapid growth of our knowledge of the properties of the radiations from active substances, and of the remarkable series of transformations that occur in them. In the present work I have endeavoured to give an accurate and concise account of the whole subject as it stands to-day within the compass of a single volume. A few pages from the earlier book have been utilised, but, otherwise, the present volume is an entirely new work.
It is of interest to signalise some of the main directions of advance since the publication of the second edition of my Radioactivity. There has been a very great increase in the amount and accuracy of our knowledge of the radiations from active substances, the nature of their absorption by matter, and of their connection with the transformations. The discovery of methods of counting single a particles has proved of great service not only in extending our knowledge of the rays, but also in obtaining accurate data for the calculation of a number of important radio-active quantities and atomic magnitudes.
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