1896.] ^^ 



One of my students said it must be a hollow-ground razor ; and so we found 

 it upon measurement. The photograph that we saw on the screen by 

 Prof. Goodspeed of the aluminum plates with various holes bored in them 

 was interesting, both as showing what can be done in the case of 

 aluminum and what may be done in the case of other metals. From any- 

 thing we know now as to the Rontgen rays, it will be impossible to tell 

 much about armor-plating or anything of the kind ; or about the molec- 

 ular construction of any considerably thick pieces of the more opaque 

 metals ; but it does seem as though we can discover forms of ether vibra- 

 tion that will go through aluminum and go through hard rubber, and other 

 forms that will go through pitch and things of that kind, and that cer- 

 tainly some day we are going to discover some form of ether vibration to 

 which iron may be transparent. Of course we can all see what a tre- 

 mendous application that would have in the mechanic arts. 



We have one or two rather interesting photographs from a medical 

 standpoint, showing its possibilities. Two or three of the students in 

 photographing their hands discovered differences. One case of sesamoidal 

 bone is very apparent, between the thumb and fore-finger of one of the 

 students' hands ; and then just two or three days ago we had a 

 laboring man who was out of work from an injured hand ; had been 

 injured in a runaway accident and had gone to a local physician who has 

 quite a reputation for doing poor work ; had his hand treated ; and it was 

 never getting well ; and we put it under the Crookes tube and, sure 

 enough, there was a partial dislocation and a fracture which had never 

 been attended to properly. Of course he was very glad to have us point 

 out how to remedy it. 



We have experimented slightly with a very interesting Crookes tube. 

 We made a Crookes tube out of au ordinary lemonade shaker — whisky 

 shaker — I don't know what you call it down here — with a hard rubber 

 end in it ; and the results have been very negative. We have never 

 gotten any shadow photographs with it. We have simply taken three or 

 four photographs with it. 



Mr. John Carbutt's remarks were as foUoAvs : 



My interest in the new Rontgen rays has been from the first reading of 

 them. Being so interested in photography, when reading of the wonder- 

 ful results produced by Prof. Rontgen, I naturally saw that there was 

 going to be a much larger outlet for dry-plates. Outside of its commer- 

 cial value I naturally took an interest in its scientific aspect ; and the first 

 thing that struck me was the great length of time for which the objects 

 had to be exposed to the Rontgen rays. I therefore made it my business 

 to investigate and to see whether or not a plate could not be produced 

 which should be more sensitive to the Rontgen rays ; and, as mentioned 

 by Prof. Goodspeed, I experimented with the fluorescent substances, hav- 

 ing experimented with numerous dies in the making of anthochromatic 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXV. 150. E. PRINTED MAY 26, 1896. 



