Masterpieces of Science 



to the one under consideration. These details 

 were given under good-natured protest, he failing 

 to understand why his personality should interest 

 the public. He declined to admire himself or his 

 results in any degree, and laughed at the idea of 

 being famous. The professor is too deeply in- 

 terested in science to waste any time in thinking 

 about himself. His emperor had feasted, flat- 

 tered, and decorated him, and he was loyally 

 grateful. It was evident, however, that fame 

 and applause had small attractions for him, com- 

 pared to the mysteries still hidden in the vacuum 

 tubes of the other room. 



"Now, then," said he, smiling, and with some 

 impatience, when the preliminary questions at 

 which he chafed were over, "you have come to 

 see the invisible rays." 



" Is the invisible visible ? " 



"Not to the eye; but its results are. Come in 

 here." 



He led the way to the other square room men- 

 tioned, and indicated the induction coil with 

 which his researches were made, an ordinary 

 Ruhmkorff coil, with a spark of from four to six 

 inches, charged by a current of twenty amperes. 

 Two wires led from the coil, through an open 

 door, into a smaller room on the right. In this 

 room was a small table carrying a Crookes tube 

 connected with the coil. The most striking 

 object irt the room, however, was a huge and 

 mysterious tin box about seven feet high and 

 four feet square. It stood on end, like a huge 

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