Masterpieces of Science 



coming from the tube which had a luminescent 

 effect upon the paper. I tried it successfully at 

 greater and greater distances, even at two 

 metres. It seemed at first a new kind of invisi- 

 ble light. It was clearly something new, some- 

 thing unrecorded." 



"Is it light?" 



"No." 



"Is it electricity?" 



" Not in any known form. " 



"What is it?" 



" I don't know. " 



And the discoverer of the X rays thus stated 

 as calmly his ignorance of their essence as has 

 everybody else who has written on the phe- 

 nomena thus far. 



"Having discovered the existence of a new 

 kind of rays, I of course began to investigate 

 what they would do." He took up a series of 

 cabinet-sized photographs. "It soon appeared 

 from tests that the rays had penetrative powers 

 to a degree hitherto unknown. They penetrated 

 paper, wood, and cloth with ease; and the thick- 

 ness of the substance made no perceptible differ- 

 ence, within reasonable limits." He showed 

 photographs of a box of laboratory weights of 

 platinum, aluminum, and brass, they and the 

 brass hinges all having been photographed from 

 a closed box, without any indication of the box. 

 Also a photograph of a coil of fine wire, wound 

 on a wooden spool, the wire having been photo- 

 graphed, and the wood omitted. "The rays," 

 102 



