The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-08-18
PERILS OF THE X RAY.
Edison Says He Is Afraid Of
the New Light.
H1sENpLoYEEL LOST HAND ANDAR

Famous Inventor Tells How Clar-
once Daily Was Injured by the
Fluorescent Lamp, Finding His
Sight Impaired by Experiments.
Will Have Nothing to Do With
Radium.
That impaired sight, cancerous dis
ase and even death may come to him
who is continuously exposed to or in
experienced in the use of Roentgen
rays has been demonstrated in a pitt
able manner in the laboratory Of
Thomas A. Edison at Orange, N. j..
Clarence Daily, an assistant to the
~Wizard Of Menlo Park" has con-
tributed an arm and a hand to this
demonstration, while Mr.. Edison him
self suffers from the disturbed focus
Of one of his eyes through experiments
with the mysterious light in an en-
deavor to find for it some commercial
utility.
MI. Edison was recently seen at his
home in Llewellyn Park. Orange, by a
New York World reporter and asked to
tell the story Of the experiment which
disabled Daily and came near making
Mr.. Edison sightless.
"Don't talk to me about \ rays" he
said. II am afraid Of them. l stopped
experimenting with them two years
ago, when l came lear losing my eye
night, and Daily, my assistant, prac-
hcally lost the use of both Of his arms.
I am afraid of radium and polonium,
too, and l don't want to monkey with
them.
up to two years ago l was deeply
scope which I invented, a pyramidal
box with one open end, the smaller,
and a larger closed end, the covering
being a. chemical sheet against which
the object to be examined Is placed, the
rays being focused upon it. was
making experiments in a dark room
that l had constructed in one end of
the laboratory. l was looking for an
improved crystal, and there were daily
results that fascinated me and kept my
eye glued to the Horoscope virtually
all the time.
II used my left eye. and one day
when l came out of the dark room and
closed my right eye for a moment ev-
erything looked double. I FASTENED to
an %oculist, who said that my Y was
something over a foot out of focus.
It is still imperfect, and l do not think
that it will eve be entirely we'll.
when l noticed the effect upon my
eye l cautioned Daily. I told him that
there was danger In the continuous use
Of the tubes, but he persisted because
he was SO enthusiastic upon the sub
ject. The only thing that saved my
eyesight was that l used a very weak
tube, while Daily insisted in using the
most powerful one he could find.
1.-THE box of the Horoscope only par
TALLY covered his face, so that the light
fell upon his hair and made 1t fall out
that is, what was left of it after expos
Ing his head to the light in a reckless
way to illustrate its power. Parts of his
hand and arm were also exposed to the
action of the light.
II am keeping him on the pay roll,
although he is not able to do any work,
and l expect to take care of him as
long as he lives. l have sent him away
on q vacation to Woodbridge, n. j.,
where the change may do him good"
Speaking of radium. Mr.. Edison,
what Is your opinion of it," asked the
reporter.
II have had several pieces Of it from
Nine. Curie in Paris, and l have ex-
perimented with it. l do not see it's
commercial utility, but it opens up a
great field of thought and scientific re-
search. 1t o%verturns all the old the
cries of force and energy and has set
scientists to thinking. Do | believe
that it is the solution of perpetual mo
ton? No. l have a peculiar theory
about radium, and l believe it is the
correct one.
II believe that there is some mysteri-
Gus ray pervading the universe that is
f1uorescing to 1t. In other words, that
all its energy is not self constructed,
but that there is a mysterious some
thing in the atmosphere that scientists
have not found that is drawing out
those infinitesimal atoms and distribut-
ing them forcefully and indestructi-
bly,"
did you ever find any commercial
utility in the X rays or radium?"
"My researches, I might as we'll tell
you now that have abandoned them,
were in the direction of making a flu
crescent lamp. l obtained results which
brought me each day nearer to the OBJ
ject Of my desire. l found a crystal
that was fuorescing 10000 times. and
l thought had my lamp. Then came
the question of practical use. l could
make the lamp all right, but when l did
SO l found that it would kill everybody
who would use it continuously.
mo, l do not want to know anything