Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

“ The electrodes being at the ends, the cathode rays would have to traverse the bends of the tube. Röntgen regarded the cathode rays as streams of electrified particles and believed that friction would be developed as these particles streamed past the bends of the tube. He expected this friction to result in new phenomena.
On a flat-topped desk in Professor Röntgen's private office lay an unassorted heap of books, glass tubes, photographic plate holders, platinum and aluminium electrodes, and what-not, such an unassorted heap as is likely to accumulate on the desk of a busy man. ”

“ After demonstrating in this way the transmission powers of various substances, Professor Röntgen tried the effect of the rays upon the photographic plate, and found it possible to fix there the images that he had seen upon the fluorescent screen.
Fig. 1 will show how the results are obtained. A is a galvanic battery, B is a Ruhmkorff induction coil, C is a Crookes tube, and D is the plate-holder containing the sensitive plate. ”

“ All who have expressed themselves in print have admitted, with more or less frankness, that, in view of Röntgen's discovery, science must forth-with revise, possibly to a revolutionary degree, the long accepted theories concerning the phenomena of light and sound. That the X rays, in their mode of action, combine a strange resemblance to both sound and light vibrations, and are destined to materially affect, if they do not greatly alter, our views of both phenomena, is already certain ”

“ The most agreeable feature of the discovery is the opportunity it gives for other hands to help; and the work of these hands will add many new words to the dictionaries, many new facts to science, and, in the years long ahead of us, fill many more volumes than there are paragraphs in this brief and imperfect account.
THE RÖNTGEN RAYS IN AMERICA. By Cleveland Moffett. AT the top of the great Sloane laboratory of Yale University, in an experimenting room lined with curious apparatus, I found Professor Arthur W. Wright experimenting with the wonderful Röntgen rays. ”

“ The discovery of the X rays—a discovery which physicists no doubt consider as the logical outcome of researches long pursued by a few scholars working in silence and obscurity on an otherwise much neglected subject—seemed to the public eye to have inaugurated a new era in the history of physics. If, as is the case, however, the extraordinary scientific movement provoked by Röntgen's sensational experiments has a very remote origin, it has, at least, been singularly quickened by the favourable conditions created by the interest aroused in its astonishing applications to radiography. ”

“ It was left, however, for Professor Röntgen to discover that during the discharge quite other rays are set free, which differ greatly from those described by Lenard as cathode rays. The most marked difference between the two is the fact that Röntgen rays are not deflected by a magnet, indicating a very essential difference, while their range and penetrative power are incomparably greater. ”

“ Not only has electricity been applied to transportation and the development of light and power; but the latest discovery by Professor Röntgen of the X rays seems destined, possibly, not only to revolutionize our ideas of radiation in all its forms on the scientific side, but also on the practical side to be of use in the domain of medicine. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I accede to the request of the editor of this Magazine to state briefly what has been achieved in the department of medicine up to the present time. ”

“ N all the history of scientific discovery there has never been, perhaps, so general, rapid, and dramatic an effect wrought on the scientific centres of Europe as has followed, in the past four weeks, upon an announcement made to the Würzburg Physico-Medical Society, at their December meeting, by Professor William Konrad Röntgen, professor of physics at the Royal University of Würzburg. ”

“ One of his ingenious expedients was to turn to use an ordinary radiometer of large bulb, and, having fitted this with tin-foil electrodes, he found that he was able to get strongly marked shadow pictures. This application of the Röntgen principle will commend itself to many students who, being unable to provide themselves with the rare and expensive Crookes tubes, may buy a radiometer which will serve their purpose excellently in any laboratory supply store, the cost being only a few dollars, while the application of the tin foil electrodes is perfectly simple. ”

“ Röntgen's rays have rearranged some of the older ideas of matter, while radium has revolutionised them, and is leading science beyond the borderland of ether into the astral world. The boundaries between animate and inanimate matter are broken down. Magnets are found to be possessed of almost uncanny powers, transferring certain forms of disease in a way not yet satisfactorily explained. ”

“ Reinhold and Friedrich gazed at each other in amazement; but Master Martin shouted with laughter, and said, "Well, Conrad, I must say you are the very drollest rascal that ever put on an apron. You come here, and seem to be going to set to work to smash the whole place to atoms, like some great lumbering giant. Next you bellow till we're all obliged to hold our ears; and, by way of a worthy finale, you treat my little daughter here as if she were a lady of quality, and you her page, in love with her." ”

“ In the little time that he has been here, you see he has got so far that even Master Martin himself has to obey him, when he roars at him with that thundering voice of his. But then, at the same time, Conrad is so good-humoured, and so thoroughly straight-forward and honourable, that one can't be vexed with him. In fact I must say that, in spite of his wildness, I like him better than Reinhold, almost; for though he does often speak roughly, yet one always understands what he is saying. I would wager he has once been a soldier, however he may pretend to disguise himself now. ”

“ Love will make any sacrifice; Guta accepted her lover's pledge willingly, and thus they parted under the assurance that they would soon meet again.
Five months had passed. That terrible time ensued when Germany became the battle-field of the party-struggles over the election of the emperor. Conrad IV., the last of the house of Hohenstaufen, had died in Italy. In the northern countries there was a great rising against William of Holland who was struggling for the imperial throne ”

“ It was past eleven o'clock when I got home; my servant, Silva by name, a Hungarian, was waiting up for me. I told him to go to bed, and went straight to my laboratory. I was making certain experiments of an interesting nature, and in particular was anxiously developing some photographs which I had just taken by means of the Röntgen rays. The new discovery was now the craze of the whole scientific world, and I, of course, with other men of science, was bitten with it. I had several vacuum tubes by me, and all the necessary apparatus for making the rays. ”

“ Yesterday evening Grip came again. We have not seen him at all since the first time Captain Rönnow was here. And can any one imagine such a man? He seems to see nothing in him. He sat and contradicted, and was so cross and disagreeable the whole evening that aunt was quite tired of him. He argued about living externally, hollow drum, and some such things, as if it were not just the genuine manliness and naturalness that one must value so much in Captain Rönnow. ”

“ However, in spite of this inflexible character, there is not a better or more honest man than Conrad; and I will go so far as to say, that I should prefer this rudeness and this wildness, to the exquisite elegance of the manners of Reinhold. That fellow must have been a soldier, for he knows too well how to handle arms and practise various difficult exercises, to have been until now an obscure workman. But how is this, dear Rosa ”

“ According to the theory of Stokes, J. J. Thomson and Weichert, Röntgen rays are transverse pulses set up in the ether by the sudden arrest of the motion of the cathode particles on striking an obstacle. The more sudden the stoppage the shorter is the pulse, and the rays, in consequence, have greater power of penetrating matter. In some recent experiments Barkla found that the secondary rays set up by the Röntgen rays, on striking an obstacle, vary in intensity with the orientation of the vacuum tube, showing that the Röntgen rays exhibit the property of one-sidedness or polarization. ”

“ While experimenting with a highly exhausted vacuum tube on the conductivity of electricity through gases, Dr. Roentgen noticed that a paper screen covered with potassium platinocyanide—a phosphorescent substance—which chanced to be lying nearby, became fluorescent under action of some radiation emitted from the tube, which at the time was enclosed in a box of black cardboard. Professor Roentgen then found, by experiment, that this heretofore unknown radiation had the power to pass through various substances which are impenetrable to ordinary light-rays. ”

“ Amongst other theories which ascribe magnetic storms to direct solar action may be mentioned that of Kr. Birkeland, [45] who believes the vehicle to be cathode rays. Ch. Nordmann [46] similarly has suggested Röntgen rays. Supposing the sun the ultimate source, it would be easier to discriminate between the theories if the exact time of the originating occurrence could be fixed. For instance, a disturbance that is propagated with the velocity of light may be due to Röntgen rays, but not to Arrhenius’s particles. ”

“ The longitudinal waves travel with an infinite velocity. Is it therefore possible that the X waves are the longitudinal waves of Helmholtz's theory? Our apparent inability to refract the rays lends color to this hypothesis. Röntgen, in the preliminary account of his experiments, intimates that the phenomena may be due to longitudinal waves, and in a late article in the Annalen der Physik und Chemie, by Jaumann, entitled Longitudinal Light, Maxwell's electro-magnetic equations are modified so as to embrace the phenomenon of cathode rays ”

“ The closing years of the nineteenth century saw the foundation of another branch of experimental science which is closely related to the study of conduction in gases. When Röntgen announced his discovery of the X-rays, and described their power of exciting phosphorescence, a number of other workers commenced to investigate this property more completely. In particular, Henri Becquerel resolved to examine the radiations which are emitted by the phosphorescent double sulphate of uranium and potassium after exposure to the sun. ”

“ Neither sort of assurance, I need not say, is to be found in Conrad. He is an inquirer, not a law-giver; an experimentalist, not a doctor. One constantly derives from his stories the notion that he is as much puzzled by his characters as the reader is—that he, too, is feeling his way among shadowy evidences. The discoveries that we make, about Lord Jim, about Nostromo or about Kurtz, come as fortuitously and as unexpectedly as the discoveries we make about the real figures of our world. ”

“ The method thus breaks down as we approach the most interesting part of the atom.
I think, however, that we may hope before long to have at our disposal methods by which we can produce and investigate Röntgen rays of a much softer type than those hitherto used. Röntgen rays are usually generated by shooting rapidly moving electrons against a solid target; the greater the speed of the electrons the harder are the rays they produce. The softest characteristic radiation yet detected is that from aluminium ”

“ Reinhold related a thousand remembrances of brilliant Italy; but Frederick, buried up in himself, kept his eyes fastened on those of Rosa. Now here is Conrad, who approaches them slowly, like a man who has a project, but hesitates about putting it into execution.
"Well, Conrad, come here," cried out master Martin to him, as soon, as he saw him. "You have had fine and joyful success in ail the physical games, and I sincerely congratulate you. I like to see my journeymen distinguish themselves in any thing. Come, then, and place yourself there, quite near us." ”

“ They are allowed to fall (still invisible) on to a photographic plate, when a picture like an ordinary permanent photograph is obtained by their chemical action, or they may be made to exert their phosphorescence-producing power on a glass plate covered with a thin coating of a phosphorescent salt such as barium platino-cyanide, when a temporary picture in light and shade is seen.
The rays discovered by Röntgen were known as the X-rays, because their exact nature was unknown. ”

“ But, to be seen at its best, Ronkonkoma should be viewed from one of the higher points along its eastern shore when the sun is sloping down the western sky. One memorable evening this view was so beautiful as to be almost unearthly. The sun had sunk behind a heavy cloud-bank, which it tipped with a dull tawny red. By and by the sky began to change. The cloud sank lower, and lay upon the horizon in a perfectly black mass that threw its shadow upon the landscape. Its lining had deepened in color to a blood-red, and the clouds higher up the arch of the sky were ringed with a rich crimson border. ”

“ The sun had set; the evening sky was glowing red, and the twilight rapidly falling. Master Martin, Rosa, and the two journeymen had seated themselves beside a plashing fountain. Reinhold told many delightful things concerning far-away Italy; but Friedrich gazed, silent and happy, into Rosa's beautiful eyes. Then Conrad approached, with slow and hesitating steps, as if he had not quite made up his mind whether to join the others or not. So Master Martin called out: "Come along, come along, Conrad! You have held your own bravely; just as I like my journeymen to do. Don't be bashful, my lad ”