The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-21

make your head swim. This alone is a
current of higher tension than is used
to drive a trolley car"
Then he explained to me how Pr
lessor Trowbridge and his assistants,
while experimenting with this battery,
guard themselves from danger by
keeping the left hand in the trousers
pocket and wearing a rubber glove
upon the right hand.
Later on, in talking with Professor
Trowbridge himself l understood the
necessity of this enormous voltage for
experiments in this laboratory have
demonstrated that when an electric
discharge is passed through a Crookes'
tube the Roentgen rays do not make
their appearance, ever so family, until
the tension of the current amounts TO
10000 volts, and in order to study the
rays properly il is necessary to have a
much higher tension. The professo r
said that his purpose in using this
battery for producing Roentgen rays is
not so much to study the photogra phic
effects of the rays as to investigate
their nature and their relations to
other manifestations of light and eiec-
tricity. He also proposes to conduct a
series of careful experiments in passing
the Roentgen discharges through tubes
containing various gases in a pure
State-hydrcgen, argon, etc.-and looks
for important results to come from
these observations. He expects, for
instance, to draw important conclu-
sions as to the quality of the light
that comes to US from the stars.
Look, he said, adjusting the tcl mi
mails so that the current passed
through a sealed tube containing pure
hydrogen. The room was perfectly
dark save for the steady and beautiful
glow that came with the current and
hot IL
mon glass into some wonderful gem
as brilliant as the diamond, as soft and
as changing as the opal. Then on the
way came the familiar band of colors
from spectroscope near at hand and
upon these were presently projected
the characteristic lines and markings
of hydrogen
Now, you see,'' continued the pro-
lessor, by changing the electrical con-
ditions, like this, and this. cay play
on those colors, as it were, and make
them change and blend together in all
sorts of ways. In other words, we see
mat gas like hydrogen, and the same
is true of other gases, when subjected
thus to electric discharges, registers
different colors when studied with the
spectroscope, according as the electric
discharges vary. We hope to find out
what those changes mean"
At the time of my visit the expert
ments with hydrogen had just begun,
but Professor Trowbridge had already
completed a set of similar experiments
with ergon, and from these had OBJ
tanned valuable knowledge of the char
acteristics of this newly discovered ele-
ment.
1t is most interesting to observe the
elaborate precautions that are taken in
filing the tubes with these gases to
make sure that the gases are absolutely
pure. and that there is no chance of the
admiXture of air or any other sub
stance from the outside. The entrances
to the tube are guarded and sealed by
an elaborate system of valves. while
the lower end Of the tube is kept dipped
In suiphuric acid to insure absolute
dryness.
One point of interest to students of
the Roentgen rays has been clearly
demonstrated in the Harvard labora-
tory. namely, that it is impossible to
produce these rays, as has been claimed |
by some experimenters. with the ordin- |
airy Edison incandescent lamp. The |
trouble with this lamp is that it does |
not contain sufficiently high vacuum |
10 get Roentgen effects of any value. |
indeed, the high vacuum is of such |
paramount Importance in all work of |
his sort that Professor Trowbridge has |
imported from Europe an elaborate
md highly efficient air pump, with
which he proposes in the future to
make his own CrookeS tubes.