The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-23
THE MYSTERIOUS NEW RAY.
Roentgen's Discovery May Cause q
New Light Theory.

New Light Theory.
The cardinal facts observed by Pro
fessor Roentgen are susceptible of
plain and easy statement. The APP
pearance Of high vacuum tube
drought which an electric discharge is
passing is tolerably familiar. It emits
a beautiful phosphorescent light,
varied by brushes of tntenser lumfnos-
| ity at the electrodes. If we inclose
the whole apparatus in wooden box,
or cover it completely with blackened
paper, there is an end Of the luminous
phenomena so far as the observer is
concerned. Professor Roentgen, how
ever, following out the beautiful
experiments by which Lenard
showed the power of cathode rays
to pass through aluminium, has discov-
cred that after the whole of the light
is thus cut off some force or energy
remains, something which passes free
ly through the wooden box and is
capable of causing fiuorescence in var
ious substances, notably in plASino-cy-
anide of barium even at a distance
of a meter or two. The interesting
question, a question which indefinite
repetitions Of the Photographic exper-
ineut do nothing to solve It: What
is the unknown force which thus per-
OlOlO CILIC1 L1C 11S III VI llS NdCQuIu
tubes is completely cut off by an
Opaque screen? It is not light in the
ordinary sense, for it does not affect
the eye. Nor is it light in the more
extended sense sometimes given to the
word in order to describe vibrations or
rays which, though visible, are obvi-
ouSly of the same nature as visible
rays. When we have reached the most
rapid vibrations that the ear can recog-
III
or quadruple their rapidity, and de-
scribe them as sound which is inaudi
bic merely because the range of our
hearing is limited. In the same way
we may speak of invisible light, mean
ing a manifestation of the force that
gives us the sensation of light which
is either above or below the rapidity
Of vibration that falls within the range
of the human eye. We identify these
inaudfble or invisible vibrations by
physical tests. But Professor Roent-
gems rays are not exactly light, even
in this sense. They do not behave as
light behaves, whether visible or in
visible. They are not susceptible of
refraction or diffraction, or concen-
tration by a lens, or reflection by
ordinary rejecting surfaces. That
they pass through Opaque substances
is perhaps less important, because
we already have examples of selective
Transparency to light vibrations, and
this may be only another. though un-
usually striking one. 1t seems proba-
bic, however, that these new rays are
intercepted by bodies mainly in pro-
portion to their density, in which case
the selection differs in kind from what
we are familiar with. Two things they
have IN common with the ORDINARY
light--tfey can produce fiuorescence,
and they cam cause chemical changes
IN the sensitive film on a Photographic
plate. In the latter respect their action
IS weak, long exposures being necessary
to obtain the effect But 1t must e re-
membered that the conditions are very
unfavorable, because the screens used to
shut off the light of the vacuum tube.
though permeable by the new rays, yet
offer great resistance to their passage.
The rays pass through wood but not
through an indefinite thickness of wood.
The grain of the wood employed is visible
in the photographs. showing varying re-
ances.--London Times.