The morning times., 1896-02-12
WITH THE ROENTGEN RAYS
Successful Experiments Made by
Army Officers.
Interesting Results Obtained With
the New Light at the Fort
Monroe Laboratory.

Fort Monroe, Va, Feb. 11.-Within the
last two weeks large number of ex-
periments with the new Photographic
light have been performed in the electrical
laboratory OF the United States Artillery
School at Fort Monroe, Va, by Lieut..
George o. squier, Third Artillery, in
structor. assisted by Lieut.. w. c. Davis
and the student Officers of the school.
The laboratory contains a fine HotZ
machine, inductimcils, and scvereal good
vacuum tubes so the first experiments
| were strips of different metals exposed on
the outside of the ordinary plate holder,
similar to those of Prof. Trobridgc.
Since glass shuts out the new rays to
great extent, it WIS planned from the very
| first by Lieut.. sGuier to make, if pos
| sible, tube large enough 10 get inside
| the tube, to experiment with the rays
direct from the cathode, without the inter
| vention of any glass at all.
'rc make such q tube the powerful air
pump belonging to the densimeter room of
the chemical laboratory was removed to the
| electrical laboratory and large ordinary
| air pump bell jar about inches in diameter
| and IL inches high was fitted at the top
| With an adjustable platinum electrode and
| for the other eiectrode the regular stop
cock from the eenteEof the pump plate was
| also fitted with;a platinum wire.
! It remained tlen,tp only properly mount
| suialt plate holder upon stand inside
| the Jar and exhaust the air until suitable
pressure was reached before turning the
induction coil or tthe Holtz achine, the term
| inalS of which were attached to the two
| jar electrodes II
! The first trial of this method was made
| on Friday last and was successful, although
the vacuum required for such large
| tube was difficult to obtain on account OF
defects in the1pump. A small losenge of
| sheet iron was clearly outlined upon the
| Plate, which was placed directly between
| the electrodes and about three inches from
| either. Besides the losenge shadow ir-
regular and peculiar patches appeared
| over parts OF the plate, which, in addition
! to being inside the. holder was wrapped
| with two thicknesses OF dark cloth. The
exposure wasoabout five minutes.
A second trial of the same apparatus was
made this afternoon with better results,
the Vacuum being under much better con-
| troll and the exhaustion being carried
| further than before. A Krag-Jorgesen
| bullet from the new army small arm rifle
was placed inside leather pocketbook and
| upon the plateholder and the whole enclosed
| in paste board box, was exposed for 4
minutes directly between the poles of the
| jar. Upon developing it showed distinctly
the outlines OF the bullet and the dark
| central trace of the lead interior portion.
This bullet is reetenths of an inch in
diameter and consists of an outer uickle
steel jacket surrounding lead interior
| spindle. This plate as before showed ir-
regular light patches over it apparently
not dde TO shadows OF objects but possibly
| giving record OF the discharge itself as it
| passed through the plate.
| 1t is believed that thus getting directly
inside the tube itself and under the direct
| Influence of these active rays will much re-
duce the exposure required and will cause
| objects otherwise Opaque to yield to
! penetration. The experiments will be
| continued with special view to their mill
| tary aspect.