The record-union., 1896-02-18
R0ENTGEN RAYS.
Most Characteristic Properties of
These RAYS.

These Rays.
The scientific world is occupied with
a new discovery, notice of which has
reached the scientists through the daily
papers. 1t is not to be wondered that
most of the information thus spread
has been wrong either entirely or par
TALLY. A few newspapers, who at first
wanted to know a little too much, have
used the news as matter of ridicule,
thus obviously laying bare their own
ignorance. The phenomenon itself may
possibly be explained as a property of
cathode rays. Cathode is the name for
the negative electrode in a battery or for
the negative metallic plate extending
into Crooles tube. In Crookes tube
discharges brought about by induction
coils or frictionaI machines or in any
other way. certain phenomena are OBJ
served which deal particularly with the
cathode.
1t appears that rays emanate from
the cathode, a fact first observed by
Faraday and afterward by Plucker,
Hittorf, Goldstein, Crookes, Weide
mann, Ebert, Hertz, Lenard, ETC., which
are distinguished by the peculiar ef-
fects that they can produce We will
enumerate some of the most character
istic properties of these rays:
1. They go out from the cathode in
straight lines, independent of the po-
sition Of the anode, which is the posi-
tive electrode; but they are obtainable
only in very high vacua.
2. They produce only a very faint
luminescence of the gas, but on the
nfh ha e.4,~0
cence.
3. They are acted upon by magnet,
III the same way as an electrical cur
rent flowing along these lines.
4. After a long time of discharge the
inside walls of the globe are covered
with the material of the cathode, from
which it follows that the rays carry
material particles from the cathode.
5. By giving the cathode the shape of
a concave mirror, it is possible to con-
centralte the rays to a point in which
case heating will result at that point.
6. The cahode gets very hot, and in
that respect the Crookes tube resembles
an arc between two metal points where
the negative pole becomes at certain
times the hottest. This probably takes
place where there is only a gas dis
charge instead of a regular arc, a phe-
nomenon first observed by Professor M.
/. Pupin, in. the course of experiments
carried ON by w. H. Freedman.
Z. Effects which seem to be most
closely connected with Rontgen's dis
covery were observed by Hertz in 1888;
he found that cathode rays could pass
through several layers of gold leaf. AL
though, according to the latest reports,
the Rontgen rays do not seem to be di-
rect cathode rays, but produced by
them when passing through glass.
Professor Lenard, during his stay at
Bonn, while Hertz was still living, ex-
tended this discovery by showing that
the cathode rays will pass through a
piece of aluminium placed over an aper-
ture of the tube and produce phosphor-
escence in the outside air; in fact, he
found that different gases possess diff
ferent absorptive powers for these ca
thode rays.
1t is to be expected that chemical eff
fects are produced by these cathode
rays and that forms the basis of Pro-
fessor Rontgen's experiments. His dis
covery certainly is an extension of
Hertz's and Lenard's work if, indeed, it
does not add to it an entirely new ele-
ment.
Two opinions regarding the nature Of
cathode rays exist to-day, the English
and German. The English view origin
ated with Crookes, who supposed that
cathode rays were paths of projected
particles of matter; the German view
favors the hypothesis. which assumes
that cathode rays are due to a particu
lar kind of vibratory motion of the
ether. 1t is supported by Hertz, Weide-
mann, Ebert, Goldstein, Geitel, etc
Max Osterberg, in Electric Power for
February