All this caused by ionizing radiation fallout from the nuclear weapons.
Liquid ammonia possesses strong ionizing powers, and solutions of salts in liquid ammonia have been much studied.
Attempts have been made to co-ordinate this ionizing power of solvents with their dielectric constants, or with their chemical properties.
On either Birkeland's or Nordmann's theory, the electric impulse from the sun acts indirectly by creating secondary cathode rays in the earth's atmosphere, or ionizing it so that discharges due to natural differences of potential are immensely facilitated.
The collapse of the gold-leaf is observed through an aperture in the case by a miscroscope, and the time taken by the goldleaf to fall over a certain distance is proportional to the ionizing current, that is, to the intensity of the radio-activity of the substance.
