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The discovery of radioactivity came in 1896 when Wilhelm Rontgen announced the discovery of X-rays. He pointed out that X-rays came from a spot on a glass tube where a beam of electrons, in his experiments, was hitting, and that this spot simultaneously showed strong fluorescence. It occurred to Henri Becquerel and other that X-rays might in some way be related to fluorescence and to phosphorescence.

Becquerel accordingly tested a number of phosphorescent substances to determine whether they emitted X-rays while phosphorescing. He had no success until he tried a compound of Uranium. Then he found that the Uranium compound, whether or not it was allowed to phosphoresce by exposure to light, continuously emitted something that could penetrate lightproof paper and even thicker materials.

Becquerel determined that the compounds of Uranium and the element itself produced ionization in the surrounding air. Thus either the ionizing effect, as indicated by the rate of discharge of a charged electroscope, or the degree of darkening of a photographic plate, could be used to measure the intensity of the invisible emission.

Moreover, the emission from the Uranium was continuous, perhaps even permanent, and required no energy from any external source. Yet, probably because of the current interest and excitement over X-rays, Becquerel’s work received little attention until in 1898 when Marie and Pierre Curie entered the picture. Searching for the sources of the intense radiation in Uranium ore, they used tons of it to isolate very small quantities of the two new elements, radium and polonium, both radioactive. Along with Becquerel, the Curies shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

While the early separation experiments were in progress, an understanding was slowly being gained about the nature of the spontaneous emission from the various radioactive elements. Becquerel thought at first that there were simply X-rays, but three different kinds of radioactive emission, now called alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays were soon found. Alpha particles are positively charged particles of Helium nuclei, beta particles are streams of high-speed electrons and gamma rays are high-energy radiation similar to X-rays.

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