alpha rays
4.With the discovery of the radio-elements, physicists found themselves for the first time confronted with strange substances, minute generators of radiation endowed with an enormous concentration of energy; alpha rays, positively charged helium atoms, beta rays, negatively charged electrons, both possessed of a kinetic energy which it would be impossible to communicate to them by human agency, and finally, gamma rays, akin to very penetrating X-rays.
9.In the course of recent years various artificial transmutations of different types have been discovered; some are produced by alpha rays, others by protons or deuterons, hydrogen nuclei of weight 1 or 2, others by neutrons, neutral particles of weight 1 about which Professor Chadwick has just spoken.

