GIESEL, F. (FRIEDRICH OSKAR). - THE CONCENTRATION OF RADIUM AND POLONIUM.

Einiges über die Verhalten des radioactiven Baryts und über Polonium. (+) Ueber die Ablenkbarkeit der Becquerelstrahlen im magnetischen Felde. (2 Papers).

Leipzig, J.H. Barth, 1899. Contemp. hcalf. Gilt spine. Slightly rubbed. Light wear to spine ends. In "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg. von G. Wiedemann.", Neue Folge Bd. 69. VIII,875 pp. and 8 plates. (Entire volume offered). Small stamp on title and verso of. Internally clean and fine. Giesel's papers: pp. 91-94 and pp. 834-836.

First edition of an early and importent paper in the study of radioactivity, explaining how to prepare radium compounds, and thus being the first to place preparations of pure radium bromide on the market.

The second paper offered, contains the first proof that Becquerel rays could be deflected by a magnet.

Giesel "A past master at the art of extracting and preparing pure substances in phytochemistry, after the Curies’ 1898 discovery of polonium, he applied his craft to radiochemistry. By 1900 he had developed an improved method of fractional crystallization, producing a greater concentration of radium salts in a shorter time, by using bromide instead of chloride. One direct result of his highly influential efforts, by which pure radium bromide became commercially available for research, was the 1903 verification by William Ramsay and Frederick Soddy of the production of helium from radium. Giesel was the first to observe the decomposition of water by radium salts."(DSB).

When his close friends and nearby colleagues Julius Elster and Hans Geitel obtained inconclusive results regarding magnetic influence upon Becquerel rays, Giesel provided a key to these rays’ non-X-ray character by his decisive proof of their magnetic deflectability in October 1899.

Order-nr.: 46000