Masterpieces of Science 



truth or of the great importance of the preceding 

 reports. Today, four weeks after the announce- 

 ment, Rontgen's name is apparently in every 

 scientific publication issued this week in Europe ; 

 and accounts of his experiments, of the experi- 

 ments of others following his method, and of 

 theories as to the strange new force which he has 

 been the first to observe, fill pages of every scien- 

 tific journal that comes to hand. And before 

 the necessary time elapses for this article to 

 attain publication in America, it is in all ways 

 probable that the laboratories and lecture-rooms 

 of the United States will also be giving full evi- 

 dence of this contagious arousal of interest over 

 a discovery so strange that its importance cannot 

 yet be measured, its utility be even prophesied, 

 or its ultimate effect upon long established 

 scientific beliefs be even vaguely foretold. 



The Rontgen rays are certain invisible rays 

 resembling, in many respects, rays of light, which 

 are set free when a high-pressure electric current 

 is discharged through a vacuum tube. A vacuum 

 tube is a glass tube from which all the air, down 

 to one-millionth of an atmosphere, has been ex- 

 hausted after the insertion of a platinum wire 

 in either end of the tube for connection with the 

 two poles of a battery or induction coil. When 

 the discharge is sent through the tube, there pro- 

 ceeds from the anode that is, the wire which is 

 connected with the positive pole of the battery - 

 certain bands of light, varying in colour with 

 the colour of the glass. But these are insignifi- 



