Arizona silver belt., 1896-02-08
Photographing the Unseen.

The recent reports of the discovery of a new method of photography, by which objects hidden to the eye and inclosed by opaque substances may reproduced on the sonsitized film, have aroused more than passing interest. The discovery, attributed to Professor Routgen, of Germany, is in- teresting, not so much because of the practical uses to which the new pro- cess can be applied, as for the reason that it is so revolutionary and so con- trary to all preconceived ideas. It was at first announced that Professor Routgen had discovered light which would penetrate certain substances and permit the photograping of other substances inclosed within. The mind is unable to grasp and thoroughly comprehend so strange an operation.
 Later reports describe the new me- dium as something still more mys- terious. It is not light and it is not electricity. Light is visible, but the new medium is said to be invisible, and has not the same qualities as ordi- nary light. It will not penetrate clear glass at all, and will penetrate ground glass but feebly. On the other hand, aluminium is transparent to this astounding medium, and even copper is less opaque than glass. The force is produced by an electrical process, but it is not electricity. Of that fact all the scientists who have investigated it are assured, and yet they are un- able to say just what it is. All the scientific knowledge the world pos sesses give them no clue to it's real nature.
 The experiments which have been performed by Routgen and by English investigators have been marvellous in their results. One of the most aston ishing of these experiments is the photographing of the human body. Nothing but the skeleton is revealed in the photograph, the energy having apparently penetrated through the flesh, making it invisible in the pict- ure. In the same manner coins in- closed in purse were photographed. and in the picture only the coins themselves and the metal clasp of the purse appeared. Why is it that if the light made the flesh of the body and the material of the purse invisible in the picture, it did not also make the skeleton and the coins invisible? This is one of the questions which the in- vestigators cannot answer. They know only that by the new method of photography certain substances can be penetrated and other substance can not. The explanation of this phenom- enon they are unable to give, any more than an explanation as to why copper makes an excellent conductor of electricity and glass is an absolute non-conductor.
 It is interesting to learn in this con- nection that the Routgen discovery, so far as it affects the photographing of certain invisible objects, finds parallel in the brilliant scientific achievements of an American, Prof. Fernando Sanford, of Leland Stan ford University, who in 1893 succeeded in photographing coin between which and the plate an opaque sub- stance had been interposed. This was done by electrical energy, but while Professor Sanford's method was diff ferent, the result was much the same as that obtained by Prof. Routgen. Whether either discovery will lead to practical results of benefit to the world is yet to be demonstrated, but the pub tic will follow future Investigations with great interest. Times.