The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-12-04
X-RAY EXPERIMENTS
Interesting Discoveries and Sug-
gestions by Nikola Tesla.
NO HOPE HELD OUT FOR THE BLIND
The Sunburn Effects Noted in Many Inn
pressiOns Due to Ozone Generated by
the Rays and Skin - Fertilizers
Manufactured by Electricity.

New York, Dec 2.-The Electrical
Review to-day publishes an exhaustive
communication from Nikola Tesla on
his latest experiments with the x-ray,
which it characterizes as conveying
a wealth of suggestion and most i'm
portant and timely information. Tesla
states that the sunburn effects noted
by many experimenters are not due
directly to the rays, or Roentgen
streams, but to the ozone generated by
the rays in contact with the skin. He
says: Nitrous acid may also be re-
responsible, to a small extent. The
ozone, when abundantly produced, at
tacl1s the skin and many organic sub
stances most energetically, the action
being no doubt heightened by the heat
and moisture of the skin. Owing to
this have always taken the precaution,
when getting impressions with the
rays, to guard the person by screen
made of aluminium wires which is con-
nected to the ground, preferably
through a condenser. The radical
means, however, of preventing such
actions is to make impossible the ac-
cess of the air to the skin while expos
ing, as, for instance, by immersing in
OIL" The inventor in referring to the
recently widely heralded experiment
for making the blind see by means of
the Roentgen rays regretfully re-
marks:
No Good for the Blind.
'Is it not cruel to raise such hopes
when there is SO little ground for it?
For, first of all, the rays are not de7
monstrated to be transverse vibrationS.
If they were they would have to find
means for refracting them to make
possible the projection of a sufficient
ly small image upon the retina. AS it
is, only shadow of very small OBJ
ject can be projected. What possible
good can result from the applica-
ton of these rays to such purposes?
/ cannot confirm some of the expert
ments reported. For Instrumentation
a hand is put before the closed eyes
it is easy to distinguish the shadow,
much the same as before the light of a
candle; but when the tube is inclosed,
and all the light from the same ex-
cluded, fail to get such an impression.
The latter is, therefore, chiefly due to
ordinary light"
Fertilizers by Electricity.
Tesla points out a possible and
strikingly unique method of manu-
featuring fertilizers by electricity in
the following interesting language:
''With currents produced by perfected
electrical oscillators, such as was de-
scribed in one of your recent issues,
the production of the ozone is so
abundant that it is sufficient to
merely turn on the current for
a few seconds and ozonize strongly
permeates the atmosphere of
a large hall. These currents are also
capable of bringing about chemical
combinations, of which the chief is
that of the nitrogen with the oxygen
of the atmosphere, and an immense
possibility. which have been follow
ing up for long time, is opened up;
namely, the combination of the nitro
gen of the atmosphere on an industrial
scale by practically no other means
than mechanical power. If merely
fertilizers of the soil would be manu-
factured in this manner, the benefits
to humanity derived therefrom would
be incalculable.