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JOLIOT-CURIE, Irène (1897-1956) and Frédéric JOLIOT-CURIE (1900-1958). 'Un Nouveau type de radioactivité', in: Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. Paris: Imprimerie Gauthier-Villars for l'Académie des Sciences, 1934. Volume CXCVIII, no. 3 (15 January 1934), pp. 254-256.
4° (285 x 225mm). 'Un Nouveau type de radioactivité' with half-tone illustration. The number with 16 pages of advertisements at the end. (First page darkened in lower margin and light marginal browning). Original stapled, printed pink wrappers, most gatherings unopened, uncut (light fading to margins, upper wrapper slightly creased, spine chipped with minor losses).
FIRST EDITION, UNCUT AND UNOPENED IN THE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING DISCOVERY OF A NEW TYPE OF RADIATION. Frédéric Joliot-Curie and his wife Irène (the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, under whom Frédéric had studied) had been working together on radioactivity since 1931, making 'a series of remarkable discoveries that culminated in the discovery of artificial radioactivity at the beginning of 1934' (DSB VII, pp.152-3). Using a Wilson cloud chamber built by Frédéric that permitted them to record photographically the trajectories of electically-charged particles--and hence to track and identify radioactive emissions--the Joliot-Curies had experimented with placing a sheet of aluminium foil between a powerful polonium source of radiation and the window of the cloud chamber. Removing the source of radioactivity, it became apparent that the aluminium continued to emit positive electrons (as depicted by the cloud chamber image that illustrates the paper), and subsequent experimentation confirmed that the irradiation of aluminium by α rays formed radioactive atoms of a radioactive isotope of phosphorus in the aluminium, with a half life of a little more than three minutes. The discovery of this new type of radiation, and of the possibility of artificially creating radioisotopes of known stable elements, was announced in the conclusion to the paper thus:
'En définitive il a été possible pour le première fois de créer à l'aide d'une cause extérieure la radioactivité de certains noyaux atomiques pouvant subsister un temps mesurable en l'absence de la cause excitatrice.
Des radioactivités durables, analogues à celles que nous avons observé, peuvent sans doute exister dans le cas de bombardement par d'autres particules. Un même atome radioactif pourrait sans doute être créé par plusieurs réactions nucléaires. Par exemple le noyau 13<->7N qui est radioactif selon notre hypothèse, pourrait être obtenu par l'action d'un deuton sur le carbone, après émission d'un neutron' (p.256).
As En Français dans le texte states, 'cette découverte eut des répercussions considérables pour la recherche fondamentale et dans ses applications', and the paper stimulated a series of experiments around the world; Enrico Fermi's important technique to produce artificial radiation by slow neutron bombardment was 'a by-product of repetitions and enlargements of a discovery by [Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie] that the bombardment of certain light elements with alpha particles induced radio-activity' (PMM 422). In 1935 the Joliot-Curies were awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry for the synthesis of new radioactive elements described in this paper. En Français dans le texte 372.
4° (285 x 225mm). 'Un Nouveau type de radioactivité' with half-tone illustration. The number with 16 pages of advertisements at the end. (First page darkened in lower margin and light marginal browning). Original stapled, printed pink wrappers, most gatherings unopened, uncut (light fading to margins, upper wrapper slightly creased, spine chipped with minor losses).
FIRST EDITION, UNCUT AND UNOPENED IN THE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING DISCOVERY OF A NEW TYPE OF RADIATION. Frédéric Joliot-Curie and his wife Irène (the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, under whom Frédéric had studied) had been working together on radioactivity since 1931, making 'a series of remarkable discoveries that culminated in the discovery of artificial radioactivity at the beginning of 1934' (DSB VII, pp.152-3). Using a Wilson cloud chamber built by Frédéric that permitted them to record photographically the trajectories of electically-charged particles--and hence to track and identify radioactive emissions--the Joliot-Curies had experimented with placing a sheet of aluminium foil between a powerful polonium source of radiation and the window of the cloud chamber. Removing the source of radioactivity, it became apparent that the aluminium continued to emit positive electrons (as depicted by the cloud chamber image that illustrates the paper), and subsequent experimentation confirmed that the irradiation of aluminium by α rays formed radioactive atoms of a radioactive isotope of phosphorus in the aluminium, with a half life of a little more than three minutes. The discovery of this new type of radiation, and of the possibility of artificially creating radioisotopes of known stable elements, was announced in the conclusion to the paper thus:
'En définitive il a été possible pour le première fois de créer à l'aide d'une cause extérieure la radioactivité de certains noyaux atomiques pouvant subsister un temps mesurable en l'absence de la cause excitatrice.
Des radioactivités durables, analogues à celles que nous avons observé, peuvent sans doute exister dans le cas de bombardement par d'autres particules. Un même atome radioactif pourrait sans doute être créé par plusieurs réactions nucléaires. Par exemple le noyau 13<->7N qui est radioactif selon notre hypothèse, pourrait être obtenu par l'action d'un deuton sur le carbone, après émission d'un neutron' (p.256).
As En Français dans le texte states, 'cette découverte eut des répercussions considérables pour la recherche fondamentale et dans ses applications', and the paper stimulated a series of experiments around the world; Enrico Fermi's important technique to produce artificial radiation by slow neutron bombardment was 'a by-product of repetitions and enlargements of a discovery by [Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie] that the bombardment of certain light elements with alpha particles induced radio-activity' (PMM 422). In 1935 the Joliot-Curies were awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry for the synthesis of new radioactive elements described in this paper. En Français dans le texte 372.
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