第13章 婚后生活(4)
The School of Physics could give us no suitable premises，but for lack of anything better，the Director permitted us to use an abandoned shed which had been in service as a dissecting room of the School of Medicine.Its glass roof did not afford complete shelter against rain；the heat was suffocating in summer，and the bitter cold of winter was only a little lessened by the iron stove，except in its immediate vicinity.There was no question of obtaining the needed proper apparatus in common use by chemists.We simply had some old pine-wood tables with furnaces and gas burners.We had to use the adjoining yard for those of our chemical operations that involved producing irritating gases；even then the gas often filled our shed.With this equipment we entered on our exhausting work.
先前的实验使我们相信，在圣约阿希姆斯塔尔炼铀厂被冶炼出来的铀沥青矿废渣中，肯定含有镭元素。该工厂属于奥地利管辖，我们想办法获准能够无偿地得到这些废渣。废渣本身并不值钱，但是如何把它们弄到巴黎却使人大伤脑筋。几经周折，我们成功地将这些混有松针的褐色废渣装在袋子里面，运到我们的实验室门前，那一刻，我高兴得跳了起来。后来，当得知这废渣的放射性竟然比原矿还要强的时候，我们真的是惊诧不已。这些废渣没有经过任何处理，直接堆放在工厂外的松树林里，这真是帮了我们大忙了。后来，应维也纳科学院的要求，奥地利政府又允许我们以极低的价格收购了好几吨这种废渣。我们就是利用这种废渣才从实验室里分离出镭来的。直到后来，美国妇女赠送给我的镭才是从其他矿石中提炼出来的。
皮埃尔的学校并没有为我们提供适合的实验场地，但幸运的是校长允许我们使用以前作为解剖教学用房的一处废弃的木棚。在它的顶上有一个挺大的玻璃天窗，但却有多处裂痕，每当下雨就会漏水。棚里面夏天闷热潮湿，冬天阴冷难耐。虽然可以生炉子取暖，但也仅是火炉旁有那么点热气而已。除此之外，我们还需自己掏钱购置所有必备的仪器装置。木棚里仅有一张破旧的松木桌与几个炉台、汽灯。当做化学实验时，经常会产生一种刺激性很强的有毒气体，因此我们只好把这种实验移到院子里去做，就是这样，棚内仍旧有毒气弥漫。在如此恶劣的条件之下，我们拼命地做着实验。
Yet it was in this miserable old shed that we passed the best and happiest years of our life，devoting our entire days to our work.Often I had to prepare our lunch in the shed，so as not to interrupt some particularly important operation.Sometimes I had to spend a whole day mixing a boiling mass with a heavy iron rod nearly as large as myself.I would be broken with fatigue at the day's end.Other days，on the contrary，the work would be a most minute and delicate fractional crystallization，in the effort to concentrate the radium.I was then annoyed by the floating dust of iron and coal from which I could not protect my precious products.But I shall never be able to express the joy of the untroubled quietness of this atmosphere of research and the excitement of actual progress with the confident hope of still better results.The feeling of discouragement that sometimes came after some unsuccessful toil did not last long and gave way to renewed activity.We had happy moments devoted to a quiet discussion of our work，walking around our shed.
One of our joys was to go into our workroom at night；we then perceived on all sides the feebly luminous silhouettes of the bottles or capsules containing our products.It was really a lovely sight and one always new to us.The glowing tubes looked like faint，fairy lights.
虽然如此，我们却认为在这个极其简陋的木棚中度过的时光，是我们一生当中最美好最快乐的。为了不中断一些重要的实验，我经常就在木棚里随便做点吃的当做我们的午餐。有的时候，我不得不一整天都用一根同我身体差不多重的大铁棒去对沸腾着的沥青铀矿进行搅动。等到傍晚时分，工作结束的时候，我就会像散了架似的，连话都不想说了。还有的时候，我又要进行极其精密的结晶、分离工作，这时我又会因为室内四处飘浮着的灰尘，影响到浓缩镭的程序，使我没有办法保护好分离出的“宝贝”而苦恼。唯一令我觉得满意的是，没有人会来打扰，我们可以安静地进行我们的实验。当实验进行得很顺利，可能获得令人满意的结果时，我们就会欢欣鼓舞，激动之情简直无以言表。但有的时候，我们干了很久却仍然见不到成效，这时沮丧失望的心情就会困扰我们。不过，这种情况不会持续太久，不多时我们就会又去考虑新的设想和工作了。工作之余，我俩便会一边在木棚中踱来踱去，一边对我们的实验进行冷静的讨论，这个时候，我们的快乐也是难以言表的。
还有一件令我们感到快乐的事情，那就是，夜晚跑到木棚里去。这时我们能够看到那被我们提炼、分离出来的宝贝正在玻璃瓶或者玻璃管里向四周散发出淡淡的光芒，真是美丽极了，令我们感到既新奇又激动，那闪烁着光彩的宝贝，宛如神话中的神灯。
Thus the months passed，and our efforts，hardly interrupted by short vacations，brought forth more and more complete evidence.Our faith grew ever stronger，and our work being more and more known，we found means to get new quantities of raw material and to carry on some of our crude processes in a factory，allowing me to give more time to the delicate finishing treatment.
At this stage I devoted myself especially to the purification of the radium，my husband being absorbed by the study of the physical properties of the rays emitted by the new substances.It was only after treating one ton of pitchblende residues that I could get definite results.Indeed we know today that even in the best minerals there are not more than a few decigrammes of radium in a ton of raw material.
At last the time came when the isolated substances showed all the characters of a pure chemical body.This body，the radium，gives a characteristic spectrum，and I was able to determine for it an atomic weight much higher than that of the barium.This was achieved in 1902.I then possessed one decigramme of very pure radium chloride.It had taken me almost four years to produce the kind of evidence which chemical science demands，that radium is truly a new element.One year would probably have been enough for the same purpose，if reasonable means had been at my disposal.The demonstration that cost so much effort was the basis of the new science of radioactivity.
In later years I was able to prepare several decigrammes of pure radium salt，to make a more accurate determination of the atomic weight and even to isolate the pure radium metal.However，1902 was the year in which the existence and character of radium were definitely established.
几个月里，除了短暂的假期以外，我们从没有中断过实验研究。研究结果越来越明显地表明，我们正一步一步地走向成功，所以，我们的信心也就越来越坚定了。这时，我们的研究工作也逐渐受到了人们的关注。因此我们不但可以购买到更多的废渣，还可以在工厂里完成初步的提炼，这就极大地方便了我们，令我们有更多的时间去进行精确的分离工作。
到了这个阶段，我就专门从事纯净镭的提炼工作，而皮埃尔则专心对新元素散发出的射线的物理性质进行研究。当我们处理完一吨铀沥青矿渣之后，得出了一个确定的结论：在1吨含镭最丰富的原矿中，镭的含量也不足几分克。
1902年，我们提炼出了一分克特别纯净的氯化镭。这些氯化镭显示出了元素所应具有的性质，而且具有不同于其他元素的特别光谱。我们还确定了它的原子量，其值远远大于钡。就这样，我们得到了确定镭为一种独立元素的全部必要证据。这一工作耗时四年，但是如果资金充足、设备齐全的话，也许只需一年我们就能够完成了。我们呕心沥血求得的结果，为放射性这门新的学科奠定了基础。
几年后，我准备了几分克绝对纯净的镭盐，更加精确地测定出了它的原子量，甚至还提炼出了纯粹的金属镭元素本身。不过，确定镭的存在及其性质的年份仍旧是1902年。