Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-02-07
Washinatou Staudara
OLYMPIA, WASH.
FRIDAY EVENING, FEDRI ART I, 1896.
The Cathode Ray.

That We live in an age of progress,
notwithstanding financial depression,
is shown 10y the steady march OF scien-
tilic discovery in all parts Of the civil
lied world. 1t is now from Germany
that the light is turned on To condi-
tons which enable the photographer
to penetrate Opaque substances. by
means of what is called the cathode
ray. Prof. Roentgent is the man who
is now focused in the public eye, and
as his discovery has met with imme-
diate verification by such men as
Edison. in our own country, it is not
improbable that his name has been
added to the worlds list of men of re-
search.
Edison says OF the cathode ray, at
is new development in the field of
physics" which will he "of a great
amount of practical good"
He further says: "In surgery, for
example, l am Convidced from my
own experiments that bullets, dislo-
Gated bones, calcerOus deposits, etc,
may be accurately located by the use
of photography and the cathode ray.
What it is, it is difficult to explain.
You must understand that the electri-
cal poles are called cathode, or posi-
tive, and ariode, or negative. Now,
the cathode pole sends out rays of en-.
ergy, which travel in straight line,
unlike light, which travels in an I'M
dulatory or wavelike path. And these
cathode rays are capable of producing
an impression on bromide plates. II
any one were to ask why this is so l
can only answer l do not know, but
my own experiments here in my lab
oratory at Orange have demonstrated
this fact, although have no commun-
ication with any one on the other side.
Now, let me try to explain how these
photographs are obtained. II you
place highly sensitized plate in cam.
era obscura and suspend in front of it
an object that's not impervious to the
rays of ordinary light, you can get on
the plate q shadow, due to the rays Of
the sun. Now, suppose that instead
of the suns rays and the glass front
to the box you have the cathode ray
and wooden front to the box. The
cathode ray penetrates the wood as
the sun does the glass and with SINH,
lar results"
That is the plain statement of .
scientific result, but it will be noted
that the Wizard states that he does
not know why it is so. Nor can he
tell why certain combinations of chem
icals and metals, or given arrange
ment of vibratory motions within the
magnetic field producing q current
which annihilates time and leaps over
illimitable space.
The world must be content to re-
ceive from Nature many of her secrets
without explanation, and the cathode
ray is one of them.
1t is expected by the new agency to
be able to locate bullets and other me-
tallic substances in the body, to ex.
anime the viscera, the heart, the lungs,
and stomach, and obtain Photographic
views of the process of liberation Of
the latter organ TO illustrate temper
ance lectures. The new ray will PEN
citrate the densest of solids, and the
ministry of war at Berlin. and the
war department of our own govern
ment are conducting series of exper-
iments to apply the process to exami-
nation to castings for armor of cruis.
ers or the quality of the steel placed
in our heavy ordnance. Commodore
Melville, Chief of the Naval Engineers,
foresees incalculable benefits to the
work of his skilled corps, not only in
the detection of hidden flaws in ma
chinery upon which the efficiency of
ships in action is totally dependent,
but in studying the mysterious inner
workings Of boilers and other machin-
cry. Captain Sigsbee, the naval by
drographer of deep-sea sounding &C.
lebrity, thinks that considerable con.
tributions to science may be obtained
by submarine photography at depth
where intense darkness prevails. and
the surgical corps of both military
branches of the Government are anx-
ious to test the Roentgen light in its
. applicability to the examination OF
gunshot wounds in living subjects and
the effect Of remedies upon various IN.
ternal organs.