Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-23
MYSTERIOUS RAYS
"a g.
81.
OF %
They Resemble the Famous
Black Light.
ARE CALLED N RAYS
TRAVEL TROUGH METALS AND
OTHER OPAQUE OBJECTS.
Explain Why We Like Certain Persons
and Hate Others - Derived
From Suns Rays.
ARE CALLED N RAYS
special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS, January 10, 1903.

| 1AR1Op JdIludIy ~,
The N-rayS--"
| You mean the X-rays?
NO. the N-rays, the latest word of twen-
tieth century science, something utterly
| astounding, touching you and me and ev-
cry man and woman in the world so init
| mately that, perhaps, he cannot hate nor
| she love otherwise than by them"
IL was fragment of conversation to at
tract any one in my business. listened
ana asked questions The man who told
these things, principally to an extraordi-
nar1iy pretty French girl, was a prince of
| science.
"N-rays' murmured the pretty girl.
Hum, hum." I murmured sympathetic
| ally, but struck no responsive chord. Evil
| IDENTIFY there was something wrong with
my own N-rays. Did she believe the story
after it was told? She ought to have, be-
cause 1t Is true. possessing for its sponsor no
less man than NJ. dArsenva1, who has
verified 1t by experiments at the College
de France and presented it complete to the
Academy of Sciences only last week. 1t
fits in exactly with the we1l-known expert
ments of M. de Rochas on the exterioriza-
ton of the sensibility, for which he left
the Polytechnc; with the discoveries of
Becquerel, Blendlot ana NJ and Nine. Gu
RE respecting radiant matter, the x-rays
Newcomb on the identity of the infinitely
great and little, and hundred other won
ders.
Radiant matter, rays of glory rays Of
darkness, wonders of the fairyland of sci
ence-what next?" unused the pretty girl.
Sister Ann, sister Ann, what do you see,
sister ANN"
| Il see, across the luminous, star-dusted
void of space, and all around me, too,
strange, trembling. darting rays answer
ed the prince. They penetrate me and
make my whole body vibrate. They are of
all sorts; they quit me and return to me
and play around me eeaselessly. They
bang up against me or caress me like big
and little waves that heap the sand upon
the seashore into curious shapes.
Radiations, vibrations everywhere.
I'VE live in the midst of undulations of
varied rhythms. We knew it already, but
we knew only certain ones of them
Vibrations Everywhere
Il didn't know any, said the pretty girl.
"Oh, yes, you knew sonorous vibrations
(sounds), luminous vibrations Qights), ca
loric vibrations (heat) and electric vibra-
TONS saidthe prince There are others
that we did not know, and still others that
we do not know. All these vibrations of
different frequency and amplitude may be
classed along great elavier, or piano key
board, of fifty octaves.
"At the lower bass end Of this tremen-
dous gamut we have shocks. sonorous vi
brations-sOunds. Electrical vibrations
commence only. at the thirteenth octave
and extend to about the twenty-fourth,
where, their frequency attains 35.oooOoO
per .a,T seco on sJiI pr 500 2
above 81, 100000 vibrations per second
and along scale of eleven octaves there
must exist a lot of still more rapid vibra-
tionS. Up to this moment they remain I'M
known. We have to skip to the forty
| fourth octave, where we begin to meet the
heat vibrations we all know SO well, and
whose vibrations attain a frequency of sew
hundred trillfons per second!
Further up, at the forty-ninth octave. we
find ourselves in the midst Of light vibra-
tons, with frequency of amplitude of six
hundred trillions per second.
'And at the fiftieth?" she asked.
1.-THE fiftieth octave Is the limit Of the
ultraviolet luminous vibrattonS-one thou
sand triIlions per second! Above the fifty
first octave the frequency attains two thou
sand two hundred trillions per second. And
there is a new break in the keyboard. What
are these radiations? We do not know yet.
Perhaps X-rayS?
@In any case you know there are Breaks
you know where to seek
Yes; that between electric and heat radi-
ations consists of rays of great amplitude
and moderate frequency; one day they will
be discovered. We know some Of these mys-
FERROUS rays-X-rays, cathode rays the radi-
atoms of uranium, thorium, radium, etc.
The thing is to fit them in their places.
back II possible.
ITO begin with, they resemble in part the
famous black light found seven years ago
by DIR. Gustave lie Ben. 1t was so named
because, without affecting the eye, it ira
versed certain opaque bodies coming from
ordinary luminous sources, such as lamp.
an Auer burner, etc. We know little of it
but it's existence. Now we come to Prof.
Blendot the learned physicist of Nancy,
and the N-rays.
Have Peculiar Properties.
This year already 1904, Prof Blendlot,
at the end of long researches, proved that
a luminous CENTER such as an Auer burner,
emits certain rays having very peculiar and
particular properties. The sun sends these
same rays across space. They are rays that
are capable Of travelling through metals and
| large number of other opaque bodies I'm
medately on discovering them Prof. Blend
| lot called them N-rays.'
"Why?" asked the pretty girl.
| Everything must have name. Your
| self, Acknowledgement l.
SILENCE yourself, monsieur He called
| them N-rays."
Among other properties of these N-rays
| it was found that they excite or brighten
| up phosphorescent bodies revive the
| phosphorescence of bodies that had been rem
| dered so, very much like the red and mira
| red rays of M. Becquerel. Out of this fact
Prof. Blendot was able to demonstrate that
sun-rays contain N-rays. Imagine sunlight
I
| Theoretically, closed darkroom This dash
| of sunlight may be cut off by closing the
| hole with aff1at piece of oak board. a fiat
1 slab of leadf or even the human hand. But
the N-rays mingled with the other sun-rays
| continue passing through these objects and
/ excite the phespherescence of small GUAM
| tity of feebly insulated sulfure of calcium
| contained in a thin tube of glass. On the
other handca little water will completely
| intercept these Nsrays-a wet leaf of cigar
cite paper acted as an obstacle But a
| piece of the same cigarette paper dipped in
salt water proved no obstacle at ALL These
queer rays pass through paper. tin, leaves
blade slightly thicker t0mm 81, blade of
steel Comm, ,,5) q blade of silver (0mm u.
81 leaves of Eoid feaf.a glass blade Comm. u,
La blade of mica }onm. 15). plaque of paraf-
| fine q cm.)s anf a blade of caoutchoue
are like other. slfh-rays; they can be con-
centrated BY means of quartz lens and
support regular reflection
How very Interesting it has BEEN" said
the pretty girl This showed, Of course,
that she was very. very tired of the story
as presented Not enough human interest
When they tell you it has been, you, too
are close to the has been The prince has.