THE ROXTGEN RAY AND ITS RELATION TO PHYSICS 583 



would be dispersed very quickly. The shorter the wave-lengths, the 

 more they are dispersed. Take, for instance, short waves that bob 

 against a boat and are reflected back. Thus, if you have a big, long 

 ocean wave, it sweeps around a boat and goes on without being troubled 

 by the boat at all. The shorter the waves, the more they are bothered 

 by the boat, and so it is with respect to other waves the short waves 

 would probably be stopped by the molecules. So I do not see what we 

 can do with regard to it in that respect. According to Maxwell's law, 

 waves like sound do not exist in the kind of ether that he suggested. 

 But that is all based upon a certain theory that the lines of force were 

 always closed. He introduced into his equation an expression which 

 indicated that every line of force was a closed path coming back upon 

 itself or ending in electricity, one or the other. Now, if we throw out 

 that, then we can get this kind of compressional waves in the ether. 

 Now, it is not at all impossible that they exist, and as to whether they 

 would go through molecules any better than light waves do, nobody can 

 tell; but it is possible that they might. But if there are waves at all, 

 they must be very short waves. You cannot get over that fact if they 

 are waves at all, they must be short. 



Then, of course, you have the other theory of little particles of 

 matter flying out from the body, passing through the glass and all other 

 bodies, until they reach a photographic plate or any other place where 

 we are notified of their presence, and these little particles make their 

 way through the air or any other substance. Now, why should not the 

 little particles be stopped very quickly by bodies as well as if the rays 

 were waves? You see we are in trouble here too. Why are not the 

 waves stopped? Why are not the little particles stopped? Stokes has 

 given some sort of a theory with regard to this that, instead of having 

 a wave motion in the ether, the rays are impulses a sudden impulse 

 one wave, for instance not a series of waves at all, but one impulse 

 coming out from the tube. I think if he had seen any very sharp 

 shadows obtained from the Rontgen rays he would not have given that 

 theory. He probably has seen only those very hazy outlines that very 

 many persons take for Rontgen photographs. But if he had seen any 

 very defined ones very sharp ones he probably would not have given 

 that theory, because if the Rontgen rays are waves at all, they must be 

 short, and there must be a long series of them to make sharp shadows. 

 This is why Newton gave up the wave theory of light. You remember 

 he gave up this theory because he found that light went straight past 

 an object instead of curving around into the shadow as much as sound 



