222 ANNUAL REFOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



between 54 feet and 1G4 feet ionization is now clear,!}" shown which 

 was before masked by observational uncertainties. 



Taking into account the absorption of the atmosphere above Gem 

 Lake, which is the equivalent of 7.45 meters of water, tJie new experi- 

 ments reveal rays so penetrating as to pass through 60 meters {200 

 feet) of water, or 18 feet of lead 'before being cotiipletely absorbed. 



The new curve can be analyzed for spectral distribution much more 

 reliably than has been heretofore the case ; but it is very satisfying 

 that, analyzed by the method before used, the portion in the neigh- 

 borhood of the elevation of Arrowhead yields precisely the same 

 coefficient as did the former curve in the same region, namely, 0.22 

 per meter of water, while tlie lowest part of the curve yields the co- 

 efflcierd O.O4. per meter of luater, so that we have here brought to 

 light rays nearly five times as penetrating as those heretofore found 

 by us. Computed as below, the shortest wave length is now 0.000058 

 A, the equivalent generating potential of which is 216,000,000 volts, 

 very much higher than the estimates made by Hoffmann. 



Our total curve now extends from an absorption coefficient of 

 iu, = 0.22 per meter of water to )li = 0.04, or in equivalent wave lengths 

 computed as below 0.0005 A to 0.00006 A, a range of three octaves. 



EVIDENCE FOR THE CONTINUOUS CREATION OF THE COMMON ELE- 

 MENTS OUT OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ELECTRONS 



What can now be said with reference to the possible source of these 

 extraordinary ra3"s? Their penetrating power alone — or frequency, 

 computed by whatever formula — obviously requires that they cor- 

 respond to changes of some sort taking place within the nucleus itself, 

 tfince no extra nuclear charges can possibly be associated with any- 

 thing like such energies. 



The evidence is now strong that they are due to the continuous 

 creation at the present time of the more stable and more abundant 

 elements like helium (abundant in the heavens), oxygen, silicon, 

 and iron, out of the primordial positive and negative electrons, the 

 former of which is the nucleus of the hydrogen atom. This evidence 

 may be summarized at follows : 



First. — The pilot-balloon experiments of Millikan and Bowen,^° 

 in which they sent up recording electroscopes 0.92 of the way to the 

 top of the atmosphere and in which the absorption coefficient of the 

 cosmic rays at, or near, the top of the atmosjjhere came out of the 

 same order of magnitude as that found near the sea level,-^ show 

 conclusively that these rays consist of a definite and distinct region 

 of spectral frequencies, or oscillations, a hundred times more rapid 

 than those produced by the most powerful subatomic changes here- 

 to Millikan and Bowen, Phys. Rpv., 22, 198 ; 1923 ; and 27, 353 ; 1926. 

 =' MiUikau and Cameron, ibid. 31, 163 (1928). 



