The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-18

Previous Work of the Man WIZ Dis
covered the X-Ray.

Boston Transcript.
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was born il,
Holland and early in life manifested a dis
studied in Zurich with Professor Kundt,
and while there issued a monograph on a
method of establishing the relations of heat
the painstaking and accurate scientific
spirit, Professor Kundt looked upon him
as an extremely promising pupil, and when
the University of WurZburg called Professor
kundt there as a professor, his pupil foi-
lowed. Later both went to Strasburg, Kundt
as professor and Rontgen as his assistant.
burg and two years later he accepte the
professorship OF mathematics and physics
In the University Of Wurzburg, teaching at
the Agricultural Academy of Hohenheim.
The next year. however, he was back in
Strasburg, at the university, and in 1888
he became ordinary professor OF physic
which he has since occupied. He became
professor and director af the University In
stitute for Physics at Giessen In 1889, and
is at present a member of the philosophical
faculty OF WurZDurg.
During all this time Professor Roentgen
had been noted in Germany for his inves-
LEGATIONS. which had covered a wide range
In the field of physics. His earlier labors
were along lines in which his early profess
sor. Kundt, had been working, and several
papers were published by the two investi-
gators in collaboration. Some of these pa
pers were of a nature to attract consider
able attention, and caused. Independent in
v~estigation by other scientists on the same
topics. Early in 1873 Kundt and Roentgen
published a. paper on a variation
isothrmal surfaces of crystals. and followed
this with another on the use of the ice
calorimeter TO determine the intensity of
sunlight. Other miscellaneous papers pub
lished in the "Annalen der Physik und
Chemie," of Leipsig, by Professors Roentgen
and Kundt were upon changes produced in
and the thermo-electrical and ~actino-elec-
trical properties OF quartz, and Professor
Roentgen alone published a view of a treatise
by Professor Kundt upon the optical condi-
tions of quartz in the electrical field.
Experiments upon the viscosity of different
liquids under pressure were made by Pro-
fessor Roentgen while in the University at
Strasburg, and he wrote a number of treat
Uses upon the compressibility OF carbon
disulphide, benzol, aethyl ether and some
alcohols, his labors in this line adding much
to the scientific knowledge OF the influences
OF pressure In affecting the behavior OF
different substances under certain conditions.
Professor Roertgen was one of the first to
investigate the subject OF sounds produced
through gases, a subject in which the in
vestigations of Professor Alexander Graham
Bell. extensively published on this side of
the water. are well known. In 1878 Pro-
lessor Rcentgen invented a form OF aneiroid
barometer, in which he substituted a mi
meter screw. but the instrument, while un-
usually sensitive, was so delicate that Ii
never came into general use.
Becquerel gave to the scientific world, in
a paper published in November, 1870, his
discoveries of the detection Of gases pro-
duced by the action of magnetism. Pro-
fe3sors Kundt and Roentgen had been in
vestigating the same subject independently
In 1878, and in a paper read before the
Munich Academy, May Is, 1879. Professor
R%oentgen announced that they had sue
ceeded in measuring the magnetic ~rotative
powers of various gases. Then Becquerel
announced his own discovery OF the same
property in atmospheric air by the action
OF the earth's magnetism. and Professor
Roeatgen applied his measurements TO this
lessor Gordon. the eminent English physi-
cist, that he had found that light going in
a north and south direction through the
earth's atmosphere would be rotated one
degree i'm passing 36 miles. While the
practical result of these discoveries and re-
searches is not TO be compared with those
of the discovery of the X rays, ii must be
remembered that the discovery which has
made the name of Roentgen famous was
directly due to the development OF the spirit
of scientific investigation through these ear
lier studies and Investigations.