Bidspirit auction | BECQUEREL HENRI: (1852-1908) French physicist,

BECQUEREL HENRI: (1852-1908) French physicist, the first person to discover evidence of radioactivit... - BECQUEREL HENRI: (1852-1908) French physicist, the first person to discover evidence of radioactivity. Nobel Prize winner for Physics, 1903. An interesting Autograph Manuscript Signed ('Henri Becquerel'; in the title), two pages, folio, n.p., n.d. (c.1903), in French. The manuscript, featuring numerous corrections and deletions, is entitled 'Sur le rayonnement penetrant du Polonium, Note de M. Henri Becquerel' (Translation: 'On the penetrating radiation of Polonium, Note by Mr. Henri Becquerel') and makes references to his experiments of 1899 and 1901, focusing on Polonium, whose radiation (which he names 'beta radiation') differs from his first observations, stating, in part, 'J'ai reconnu recemment.....dans le rayonnement du Polonium, a cote de la radiation observable caracteristique de ce corps, l'existence d'un rayonnement penettrant produisant des effets secondaires sur les metaux qu'il rencontre et qu'il traverse. J'ai montre egalement que la radiation caracteristique observable est identique aux rayons alpha du radium, qu'elle est caracterisee par des radiations possedant la meme deviabilite....laquelle est inverse de celles des rayons cathodiques, et enfin - qu'elle s'affaibilt avec le temps comme le rayonnement des corps actives.....En particulier les produits ayant servi a mes premieres experiences et qui avaient ete presentes par Marie Curie en 1899, ont perdu presque totalement la faculte d'emettre des rayons alpha. Ces produits etant deja.....affaiblis en 1901....servi a mettre en evidence l'existence d'effets secondaires, effets dus a la radiation persistante. En repetant les memes experiences avec les produits......plus actifs, quoique affaiblis certains.....Je me demandais alors si les particules persistantes....la radiation alpha.....elles ne subsisteraient pas independamment de celles-ci; j'ai alors recommence les experiences de 1901 avec les amas produits que je cumule car inertes de par la diffusion des rayons alpha, et j'ai obtenu des champs semblables a celles de 1901. J'ai alors recommence les experiences de 1901 avec les anciens produit que je.....cette observation.....faits important 1. l'independance entre le rayonnement penetrant et les rayons alpha, et 2. la permanence, de....penetrants, et ce fait permet de ranger definitivement le Polonium dans la classe des corps radioactifs, au lieu de le considerer comme corps acheve dont l'intensite disparait avec le temps. Ainsi dans le meme corps il peut exister deux types de conditions independantes….Il convient de supposer que.....du Polonium, les rayons beta.....il semble donc que les 3 types de radiations que.....et des rayons......a admettre une dependance entre les rayons alpha, beta et y du rayonnement actifs et l'independance qui vient d'etre etablie est de nature a considerer que produisent certains.....sur la cause de la radioactivite' (Translation: 'I have recently recognised…..in the radiation from the Polonium, alongside the observable radiation characteristic of this body, the existence of a penetrating radiation producing secondary effects on the metals which it encounters and which it crosses. I have also shown that the observable characteristic radiation is identical to the alpha rays of radium, that is characterised by radiations possessing the same variability….which is the opposite of those of the cathode rays, and finally - that it is weakened with time like the radiation of active bodies….In particular the products having been used for my first experiments and which had been presented by Marie Curie in 1899, have almost completely lost the ability to emit alpha rays. These products already being….weakened in 1901…..served to highlight the existence of secondary effects, effects due to the persistent radiation. By repeating the same experiments with the products…..more active, although some weakened…..I wondered then if the persistent particles…..the alpha radiation….would not remain independently of these; I then repeated the experiments of 1901 with the product clusters that I accumulated because they are inert due to the diffusion of alpha rays, and I obtained fields similar to those of 1901; I then started again the experiments of 1901 with the old products….important facts 1. The independence between the penetrating radiation and the alpha rays, and 2. The permanence of penetrants, and this fact makes it possible to classify polonium definitively in the class of radioactive bodies, instead of considering it as a finished body whose intensity disappears with time. Thus, in the same body there can exist two types of independent conditions….It should be assumed that….of Polonium, beta rays….so it seems that the 3 types of radiation that….and rays…..to admit a dependence between the alpha,