The record-union., 1896-03-20
THE ROENTGEN NOT THE CA
THODE RAY.

terms, mainly through inadvertence 81
first but thereafter to adhere to the
error, is regretable 1t is the kind OF
| consistency that is inconsistent The
result has been the driving into the
language Of a good many words. thai
it We're better for purity of the tongue
had been omitted from usage But re-
peated use of them in the press, in
sistence upon such use by newspaper
writers, has forced the words into the
language.
| There is danger that still another Of
| fense is to result in like manner. The
| Roentgen ray is spoken of as the ''Ca-
thode ray" This is error, and the at
tention of the newspapers has been
called to it by Roentgen himself, by Nc
Cormack and others, and some leading
papers have frankly confessed the er-
ror and corrected themselves. But the
mass of our contemporaries adhere to
the term cathode ray" when the fact
| is that the cathode ray was known
long before Roentgen's discovery. 1t is
not the ray that gives imprint of the
opaque body hidden beneath matter
| less opaque.
The next we know some one will
write the word "cathodegraph" or "ca-
photograph" and many of our contem-
poraries will adopt it, and the meaning
less, almost impossible word will be
| driven wedge-like into the language.
It is just as well to have words that
express the meaning intended, as to
have meaningless words. Mccormack
suggests that a proper one would be
'actinograph," though he prefers 'ac-
tinogram," meaning ray picture. He
says that even "skiagram'' would be
permissible, meaning shadow picture,
and fairly expressing the actual char
acter of the process. But despite the
protests of the scientists, we stand
ready to wager something that the
writer's of the press will insist upon
some such word as "cathodegraph,' >
when as a matter of fact the cathode
does not write or picture or make fast
the shadow.
The cathode ray does not produce the
print in other words, but totally dis
tinct ray, discovered by Professor Ro-
entgen in experimenting with the ca
thode, that is to say the negative pole
or electrode of a ga1vanic battery, in
connection with a Crookes tube; that is
glass bulb in which a vacuum has
been nearly created or gas not atmos-
pheric has been greatly attenuated.
But now in plenty of laboratories we
are told that the print of the Opaque
concealed body upon the sensitized
plate is produced without using the
cathode at all.
1t is reported that Santa Cruz pho
tographer has found that he gets re-
suits on a sensitive plate beneath a
wooden cover on which the opaque OBJ
jects were placed, touched by a horse
shoe magnet, the whole exposed to COM
mon sunlight, with no Crookes tube or
battery used.
Mccormack thus states the case to
show that the Roentgen discovery is
not that of the cathode ray:
1t was noticed that the Increase or
diminution of the atmospheric pressure
of a closed receiver affected the char
acter of the disruptive discharge be-
tween the two poles of an electrical ma
chine. Peculiar We're the effects in
HIraoH NV n of 20
of the intervening gas. The diminution
was accomplished by means of vacuum
tubes, with only very small quantities
of highly rarefied air, and in which,
carefully sealed, platinum discs with
protruding platinum wires were in
serted. To the latter the ends or cleo
trodes of an induction coil are con-
nected. When the discharge is made,
a fiuorescent spot is developed on the
glass of the tube opposite the negative
electrode, the so-called cathode. The
position of this spot is not determined
by the position of of the positive cleo
trode; that is, the phenomenon is not
developed necessarily in the line of pas
sage of the disruptive discharge be-
tween the two electrodes. The fluor-
escent spot seems to be produced by a
bundle of streamers proceeding in
straight lines directly from the cathode.
and it's shape is determined by the
shape of the disc of the cathode, being
outlined by the orthogonal trajectory
of the same. If light-running paddle
wheel of non-conducting material be
placed in the path of the discharge, it
will be set in rotation exactly as if it
were subjected to a hail of minute pro-
jectiles. This circumstance, and the
production of heat at the f1uorescent
spot, seem to have led Professor Crookes
to the hypothesis that the above-men-
toned streamers, which are the cathode
rays proper, are the paths of rapid
movement and bombardment of tiny
material particles.
Such is the cathode ray. What, now,
is the Roentgen ray or x ray? It's
origin, Mccormack proceeds to explain,
is the spot where the cathode ray strikes
the glass A magnet will defect the
cathode ray within the tube. Roentgen
noticed that whenever this was done
the X ray always proceeded from the
new point of incidence. i. E., from the
end of the cathode rays. But he found
the X ray could not be detected by a
magnet at all It follows that the two
are dissimilar, and, SO far from being
identical, are widely different in char
acter.
Again, the cathode ray is absorbed by
air and other elements, and it can only
be projected a short distance beyond its