The San Francisco call., 1896-02-27
If 1t Should Have No Other
Uses It Would Still Be
Invaluable.
EXPERIMENTS AT BERKELEY
An Interview With the Famous Sci.
enlist on His Seventy-Third
Birthday.

DR.. Wilson, professor of physics at the
State University. is busily engaged in ex-
perimenting with Roentgen's mysterious
ray, but so far he mas secured no results to
speak Of He says the reason is that the
university has not got the proper appa-
ratus for successfully carrying through the
experiments, which calls for larger in
duction coil. However he intends to
keep at ituntil he does get something. z.
r. Drew and W. J. Raymond, instructors
in physics, and also E. R. Jackson and
others of the students are at work with the
new ray; all handicapped, however, with
insufficient apparatus.
DR.. Lewis is in receipt of a communica-
ton from Professor Roentgen explaining
his experiments and his theory of the
cause OF the new ray. and is himself pre-
pairing paper on the subject.
All the professors at Berkeley are, of
course, very much interested il the SUBJ
ject
d. Professor lie Conte, speaking of the dis
covery, said: This is new. We have only
the most meager reports-that is to say
there has not been much done; there has
not been time for much experimenting as
yet. What there is, however, is remark
able and valuable. 1t is a distinct ex-
tension of scientific knowledge, and every
such extension presents infinite posi- bill
ties OF It's application: So far as we have
seen the one practical application of this
discovery is to surgery. The value Of it in
that application, however, can scarcely be
overestimated. If the flesh of the hand is
invisible TO these rays, and only the bones
or other like dense matter absorbs them,
then to stronger application the flesh of
the whole body may reasonably be ex-
pected 10 be so. So that it is reasonable
10 believe that the shadow of a mans
skeleton-a living man of flesh and blood
may be secured. Therefore, as Pro-
lessor Davidson has said to The CALL, if
this discovery had been made prior to the
shooting OF Garfield, the ball, about which
there was 50 much doubt, could have been
quickly located and extracted.
eff Professor Roentgen's discovery ia
found finally TO have no other application
than tins to surgery it is a great addition
to science. But 1t will have others; that is
almost certain. The whole scientific world
OF physicists is at work with this new
vibration. 1t has given new vantage
ground from which to work and a new i'm
pulse to work with, and results may be
looked for every day. 1t is great pity that
the State University is not equipped as it
should be IN its department of physics.
The equipment in other departments is
first class, but in physics We are notably
weak.
There is a considerable difference of
opinion as to just what the new ray is.
Roentgen thinks it originates at the point
where the cathode ray from within i'm
pinges upon the glass tube,s and that it is
a direct ray, as distinct from the vibrating
ray of light. There Is, as 1 say, much
difference of opinion on that matter.
Some think it the ultra red ray-the very
long ray.
light, as they may be called, of very very
low temperature pass through everything.
Everything is transparent to it. Raoul
Pictet made some very pretty experiments
in this direction, upon which l had it in
mind at one time to prepare paper, but
other things intervened, l lost inter-
est and the matter dropped. But he
secured temperatures of 100 and $50
degrees below zero. At that temperature
the rays are very long aud pass through
any amount of Clothes flesh or anything
else. Everything, as | say, is transparent
at such temperature. AS the tempera-
ture rises the vibrations shorten until the
ultra red, red and the visible light, and
on up to violet and the ultra violet Some
scientists are of the opinion that the X
ray of Roentgen may be the ultra-red ray.
It is not at all improbable that some
substance may be discovered that will
reflect and focalize it. and new applica-
tions develop infinitely"
'But, by the way" said the professor in
conclusion, ''it may be well 10 call atten-
tion again to the fact that it is not ca
thode ray. Cathode rays are not new, and
Roentgen's S recent communication on the
subject was employed in explaining that
this was not cathode ray, but something
entirely differerft, which it certainly is"
Professor lie Conte was shown THE CALL
of Yesterday, conta lining the report, taken
from the New York Herald. of Professor
Simon's experiment of photographing his
own brain. He read the account and
studied the reproduction of the photo
graph very seriously, and then said:
"lf Professor Simon or anybody else has
done this thing it is, of course, of great
moment. But | shall wait until I get it
from some authoritative scientific source
before l shall credit it. To be sure, we
cannot afford to ignore thing simply be-
cause we cannot understand it. The
things that look most impossible are often
SO because of our ignorance OF their cause.
When we come to know about them they
are very simple. On the other hand, the
things which science knows to be impossi-
ble-such as perpetual motion-many peo-
pie deem to be quite possible, and so
waste their lives in fruitless endeavors to
solve it. -