Od odkrycia polonu i radu do wyjaśnienia rozgałęzionego rozpadu potasu-40

In this paper, I am trying to explain why the potassium-argon dating method was developed much later than other radiometric methods like U-He or U-Pb, which were established at the beginning of this century. In fact, the pioneering paper by Aldrich and Nier (1948) was published 50 years after the discovery of polonium and radium, when nearly all the details cocerning potassium isotopes and radioactivity of potassium-40 had been investigated. The role of Curie's cocept of the nature of radioactivity of potassium is emphasized.