Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-11-07
WHAT ARE x-RAYs7
Anew Weapon in the Search Into the
Mysteries Of Nature.


Ever since Prof. Roentgen discover
ed the mysterious rays which bear
his name 1t has been a puzzle as to
what these rays could be. They seem
like form Of light--they give out
light under proper conditions. Or rath-
er they cause plates and screens pre-
pared with certain chemicals to be-
come luminescent or fiuorescent, as the
physicists say, when they are bonn
barded by the x-rays.
But otherwise they do not (or did
not seem TOD act like ordinary light at
all. For example, when ordinary light
is passed through prism It Is bent
slightly out Of its straight-line course.
and the degree Of bending varies with
the color-that is. with the wave length
of light So. when compound light
like sunlight Is put through the prism
1t is split up into all the colors OF. the
rainbow.
Again. ordinary light rays when
passed through certain substances like
turmaline are ''poolarized"-that Is.
only those vibrations which lie In
particular plane get through. And.
again, It Is possible to measure the
wave length" OF ordinary light even
.of those waves which lie far above
and far below the limits OF visibility.
But all this was impossible with the
X-rays. -
On the other hand, as everybody
knows, the x-rays are generated when
a metal plate In vacuum tube Ii bonn
barded by an electrical stream. II is
one of the greatest discoveries of re-
cent years that this electrical stream.
this beautiful glow which Is seen In
side the vacuum tubes. Is due to myr-
lads OF electric atoms" or particles
which act for ell the world like the
particles Of gas-air, for example.
But while the weight and charge OF
these electrical atoms can actually be
measured, no such measurement could
be made with, the "x-rays." And 30
the puzzle remained.
Very recently, however, some Eng
lish and German physicians have found
substances which react In q very Pc
culiar way to the x-rays. Certain
crystals, and the rough edges Of mica
plates and the like. It has been discov-
cred, win act like glass prism to the
rays. so that the later can now be ma
nipulated much like the rays Of ordi-
nary light. And In this way It has
been established that the rays are ac-
tually little pulses Of light But they
are incredibly thin and small. ordi-
nary light waves are measured In frac-
tions of meter-very small fractions
to be exact, in millionths ofa thous-
andth Of meter. A millionth OF q
meter is called micron, and thou
sandth part Of this Is called micro
micron. The longest visible rays are
100 or 500 of these units in length, and
the shortest, at the violent end OF the
spectrum, are about 500. It IL possible
Ito measure ultraviolet rays, which are
less than 100 units In length. But no
method of measurement has yet been
devised which can give any accurate
idea Of the waves in the x-ray pulses.
Probably they are not thousandth
part the size OF the smallest Of the un-
traviolet. ~
But now that their nature has been
determined, now that they can be RE-
fracted" and "polarized" just like ordi-
nary light, 1t Is only matter Of time
when marvellous instrument makers
and ingenious experimenters viii find
way to determine their actual d.
mensions,
When they do we shall have a new
weapon in the search into Natures
mysteries; and already researches In
this field promise to throw new light
upon the structure of atoms and MOLE
cules-that is, the structure Of that
matter" amid which we live and a
part Of which we are. Golfers Week
ly. <