The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-14
PHOTOGRAPH HEART.
Wonderful New Application o fROent-
gems X-RayS.
Electrician Says He Has Discovered How
to Observe Hidden Motions.

EDWARD Il. thompson, a consulting
electrical engineer, of 8 Beekman street,
New York, who has been experimenting
with Prof. Roentgen's discovery, made the
statement yesterday that he had discov-
cred a process whereby motion, otherwise
invisible, might be observed with the
use of the new X-rays. Mr.. Thompson
says that by his process the movements of
a watch can be observed through the case,
and the operation OF the interior organs
OF q living human being or animal be
made visible.
MIR. Thompson has not yet been able to
make complete experiments, and has not
secured results that conclusively demon
strate the pra~cticability of the discovery
he claims TO have made. He has submit
ted his process to several experts, includ-
ing Prof. Pupin of Columbia College and
Thomas A. Edison, and says they fully
agree that 1t is entirely feasible. He is to
continue his experiments in Edison's
la laboratory, and expects soon to show
absolute results.
Mr.. Thompson claims tkat the simplic-
ity of his discovery will make its feasible
ity easily apparent to those acquainted
with the new process.
The value OF such a discovery to the
science of surgery and medicine can well
be imagined from the claim of the inven
tor that with it the action of the heart
and the digestion of food can be observed.
MIR. Thompson says that his discovery
may be identical with that of Prof. SAL
vioni of P~erugia, who read a paper before
the Rome Medical Academy a few days
ago on a process which enabled the hui
man eye, by means of the Roentgen rays,
to see through anything the rays can PEN
citrate. Prof. S~slvioni, however, did not
disclose his process, while Mr.. Thomp-
gnn whn hoa olroaAX had tho prfn-ffu 81
his discovery attested, says he is quite
willing that the world should. know all
about his process.
"In the process as carried out by Roent-
gen, the effect of the Cathode rays after
passing through Opaque objects, must be
developed by photography, and therefore
a great deal of time is occupied between
the expose and the obtaining of the pic
ture, " said Mr.. Thompson. SPY my pro-
cess 1t is intended that objects ordinarily
invisible may be examined instantly, and
especially that motion may be represent
ed TO the eye. For example, IL a purse
containing coins be shaken, the move
men of the coins relatively to each other
will be apparent, and also the motion of
the purse as a whole. Again, with pow
erful rays, 1t ought to be possible with
this process to see the motion of the
muscles and the joints, when ones
finger. Is bent; or to be able to dis
tlhk u 6Dlalh ~ DIOdk IN
moving the arm back and forth;
or to see the circulation of the blood,
the beating of the heart, and the motion
of sap in trees and plants, and of all other
objects which at present cannot be OBJ
served.
THE process consists OF three steps.
First, in generating cathode rays, pref
erably with an aluminium tube to permit
the easy exit of the rays; second, III re-
ceiving the rays upon a substance which
will change the refrangibility of the rays
and convert them into visible rays, and
third, the in~terception OF the rays. more
or less, by a non-homogenous object,
whereby the fiuorescent material, such as
canary glass, will be differently illumi-
mated according to the strength OF the
rays after Passing through the said object.
The iuorescent material are uranium or
c~anaryglass, barium platicyanide, barium
manganic-cyanide, fuchsine, and other
tuorescing materials.
"lf 1t is desired to obtain a picture
without representing the motion and to
obtain the picture Immediately without
any necessity of development, luminous
paint, such as the chloride of barium,
strontium, or calcium chloride, or other
materials which will store up the light
n hold IL for n time. as the natural
chloride or tuorspar, should be used.
sin order to perform the operation
the huorescent material should be upon a
plane surface, preferably, as, for example,
with uranium 1t would be a fiat piece OF
glass containing that material, or, with
the c~yanides, a piece of paper saturated
with the substance. The generating bulb
should be covered so as TO allow only the
invisible cathode rays TO pass for produc-
ing the effect, and OF course the room
should be very dark. IL is thought that
the rays may be made parallel, especially
by having the cathode a plane surface
for radiating them all practically i'm one
general direction.
"When I mentioned the idea TO Professor
Pupin and others they thought / intended
to accomplish the observation OF hidden
motion by the k~inetoscope, and declared
1t would be i'm r~ossible, because the
Roentgen rays could not photograph in
simultaneously. When 4 explained to them.
however. that ! employed the principle
OF illumination OF n fiuorescent material
in a dark box by the action of the X-rays
from the outside, they per-
ceived the solution of the problem i'm
"1f a watch with an aluminium case Is
subjected to the process I have described,
the wheels will be seen TO revolve /. N q
small animal or insect is enclosed In a