Evening star., 1937-12-28
HIGH ROBOTS TELL.
Of COSM|C RAYS
Balloon Devices Prove Space
Bullets Drench Earth
With Power.
By STAT Correspondent Of The star.

By STAT Correspondent OF The Star.
INDIANAPOLIS. Dec. 2s.-sending
radio-equipped balloons to the greatest
attitudes ever reached by man-made
devices and receiving from them au-
tomato radio records which throw
new light on the whole problem Of
the ultra-powerful cosmic rays,
which presumably lombard earth
from outer space, was reported be-
fore the American Association for the
Advancement of Science meeting
here today by DR.. L. F. Curtis Of the
Bureau Of Standards.
One OF DR.. Curtis robot space voy-
ayers went to q height Of 1850 feet,
nearly 23 miles, and sent back in
stantaneous reports OF what was hap
pening. There Is one Russian claim,
DR.. Curtis said, to having attained q
slightly greater heigth with . robot
carrying balloon, but the pressures
reported show that 1t actually stopped
some distance below the great height
attained by the Bureau OF Standards
experimenters.
Each balloon carried an instru-
ment known as the Geiger counter,
which records the passage OF cosmic
rays through the atmosphere. Con-
tinuous radio records are transmitted
to the ground station. These records
show, DR.. Curtis said, that the num-
ber of Hhese rays passing through the
atmosphere increases very rapidly up
to about 10 miles Then it falls of
quite rapidly until at % miles 1t has
come back to about the number re-
corded on the surface OF the earth.
Stupendous Force.
At first thought this seem paradoxl-
cal. The cosmic ray, which will pene-
trate the earth to a distance Of 1000
feet or more, presumably Is hurled
from outer space with q force OF
billions Of volts Of electricity behind
1t. There Is no force known to man
that could display such power.
These observations show, DR.. Curtis
said. that whatever the cosmic ray
may be, the powerful radiation re-
ceived on earth Is not, except In rare
instances, the thing that has been
hurled In from outer space but rather
particles knocked out Of the molecules
of the atmosphere which are struck
by these space bullets. In the ex-
tremely rarif1ed atmosphere at a
height Of % miles, there are few hits.
At about ten miles the air gets denser,
there are plenty Of air molecules in
the way and most of the rays find q
target. The electrons. protons, neu-
irons, ETC., which are knocked out OF
them may hit other molecules, pro-
ducing tertiary radiation. 1t is pos
sible there may be fourth and NTH
order radiations with different hits"
This has been suspected before but
DR.. Curtis experiments give the most
substantial proof yet offered of the
| hypothesis. The earth's atmospheric
blanket shields it from the real rays" "
Some Balloons Rescued.
While such a space-exploring voy-
age usually sc fatal to one of DR..
Curtis robots, some OF them have
been rescued and sent back to the
bureau. One landed on the deck Of
schooner in Delaware Bay, to the
bewilderment Of the crew. Another
was hshed out Of the water near Cape
May, N. j.
When such robot is recovered. it
is repaired and dispatched on another
sky voyage into the stratosphere,
Such instruments have gone nearly
twice as high as the greatest altitude
ever attained by man-carrying
balloon. So far as the scientific re-
suits are concerned, it makes no dif-
ference whether the robot is recovered
or not because it already has radloed
to the observers safe on the ground
what bombardment it has met with
in its flight.
While the cosmic ray bombardment
at the earth's surface seems To be
fairly steady, DR.. Curtis said, the
stratosphere balloon records show that
IN the higher reaches of the atmos-
phere 1t occurs in bursts" with con-
siderable intervals between them-as
II some titan among the stars were
taxing pot shots at the earth.