The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-06
STILL NEW WONDERS.
SOME POSSIBILITIES OF PROFESSOR
RoENTGEN'S GREAT DISCOVERY.


come q Common s~ign-Reoent Experi-
ments by Professor swinton In London
stiil In q Very Imperfect State.
A great deal continues to be printed In
London about the new Roentgen plytog-
raphy operations, and the experiments
with 1t by grave scientists suggest the
idea-but children Of larger growth are
tickled by the new toy-that all the ex-
pcriments and developments only show
that man has not begun to master the dis
covery, which still does rs IL wants, r..
fusing TO DO trained or perfected.
The pictures taken thus far, though
wonderful In the extreme, are only shadow
prints or sun pictures. All leave out the
substance penetrated by the new rays and
show black shadows of impervious objects.
We read In the correspondence from the
continent that Belgium has already adopt
cd the new process, and that her govern
ment has ordered every hospital to DO sup
piled with paraphernalia for aiding the
surgeons.
With these mysterious pictures bullets
and other foreign substances In the flesh
and bones of patients have already been
located successfully In manageable in
stances In half the countries In what we
used TO consider ''slow old Europe"
Perhaps the most interesting success
thus far attained Is that recorded In the
news from VienIG whore calcareous do.
posits in various parts Of the human sys-
tenn have been marvelously exposed. Prao-
tically the same thing has been shown in
the photograph Of n mans hand obtained
by Campbell Swinton for one of the news
papers here. The hand was that Of a
healthy man, but shows slight protuber-
ances at tho middle joints of two fingers,
whcreupon medical men deducc the theory
that its owner Is certain to be a victim of
govt before many years.
Swinton Is nov dcluged with letters
from medical men who wish to make use
of the new discovery. One hopes to find a
1shbone In q patients throat, another
hopes to trace a coin a man has swallowed,
and still another wants the photographers
proof that q patients broken wrist has
been badly set.
All this leads The Chronicle to assert
that we shall soon DO living in n palace
of Truth" with oil the discomforts set
forth in Gilbert's play. "Your Skeleton
While You Watt" says The Chronicle,
will DO q common street sign.
A Vienna man has already had his brain
photographed and has been unable to
sleep ever since. But much the best wit
ticism or the oil engrossing subject Is
that Of tho city promoter who says he in
tends to havo the invention adopted for
use on tho camera and to sell machines at
O hundred guineas (s500) each, SO that
snap shots at fashionable men and women
In Regent street can be taken as II the
pedestrians left their clothes ut home.
What the new invention cannot do Is
cl,No,e M. u.1n1a~f,,l - ,yhat e mill 40
The light, or electric current, or rays, or
whatever 1t is, passes through many
Opaque substances, yet refuses to pass
through materials considered transparent.
Wood, carbon, aluminium, ebonite, paper,
papier mache, human flesh n leather
are transparent to this new current, and
copper Is partially SO, but nearly all metals
and bone are Opaque.
Alfred Binct, tho French scientist, gum
med some metal figures on a thick sheet
of cardboard, then photographed it and
got a well defined picture OF the metal fig
ures. He advances tho astonishing theory
that what Is possible to the new light may
be made also possible to human eyes. lie
thinks tho eyes may acquire n new condi-
tion under not impossible circumstances,
when of course such feats as reading dates
of coins and numbers on bank notes crum-
plod up in the human hand may be per-
formed without any trick mt all.
The papers anpounc hat M. Darsonval,
| the French electrician, has made an as
founding communication to the Academy
of Sciences, of which he Is q member. Ho
says that no has been informed by q. Le-
bon that it Is quito unnecessary to depend
on the unknown light of Crookes' tube.
Photographing through opaque bodies can
be lone with ordinary light. A parafin
lamp will do 1t.
NJ. Lobon asserts that he has taken pho
tographs in this for several years.
He proceeds as follows: Inside a box with
rather thin sides he places n sensitived
plato behind u negative. In front of the
box he places an iron plate, and on tho
other side of the plate q lamp. After three
hours exposure the image is found. On
development this image is indistinct, but
IL q sheet of lead DO placed behind the box
and folded over to touch the iron plate, so
as to form O metallic shell, the reproduc-
ton of the negative for the same length of
exposure Is quite distinct.
NJ. Darsonval aGde that this experiment
cannot be accounted for on any existing
theories. NJ. Lobon ascertained that the
image was not due to any phosphorescent
light which might have been stored up in
the negative. The experiment will not
succeed If heat rays only are used.
Professor Neuser Of Vienna Is preparing
to photograph the internal organs of q liv-
ing man. Ho hopes 1t will not DO long
before his patient is saved q great deal of
physical pain.
The London experiments thus far are
much simpler than the foreign, tho papers
giving scientific explanations of the meth
DDS Of Roentgcn not yet translated. 1t Is
stated that Crookos' tube Is obtainablo at
any chemical apparatus shop, but is not
necessary. An ordinary electric light
bulb, from which tho carbon fllament has
boon removed, will answer just as well.
Some authorities assert hat the new
power is electricity. Others believe that
Roentgen has discovered a new form of
energy which probably works with longi.
tudinal and not transverse vibrations.
Whether this energy merely cxcites fluores-
ccnco which causes the formation of an in
visible image capable of development, or
- tLA -. $780,. lI 49,.