The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 7, 1903, Page 26

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 1903. : GOODSPEED'S RAY REMARKABLE ADDITION TO SCIENCE. | e r————————————— i AT AL ST UGN N SE ALED LIGHT i PROOF BOX SROWING HOW OBJeC TS| | RECEIWVE biGHT FrROM | | THE HAND RAYS EMANATING FROM THE SCIENTIST'S ROOM BY THE HAND. | ndeed an era of energy. " -five years % Willlam . s | first lectures tions n “‘radiant or “the fourth state ts from time to time new discovery general lines. ng the sa e Roentgen ray,” also called the X- r is generally known and understood in | eneral workings. It has already been | tt with practical re-| retary returne. | the ow or he"sh of arious stages of working, with wonderful actical of great an it has aiready seen. in mind, now prepared for almost th of scientific achieve- et wondering at the mar- us properties of the mew element, | by Professor Curie and | fbie, a stiJl nnounced, roud to state, by an so0dspeed of the Ran- ory of Physics of the neylvania announces t rays emanate | suviiclent in their inct photographs on platen neetion with the digeov- | ement are given in h American of May nt the extracts foi- PRINCIPLE. truths are incidental ter absorbs ¥ in waves 8t varying es off this same energy | hanged and definite length has been thus trans- racteristic of the matter forth. The human body /s or waves of this energy | e freedom and force. ed that/the character ! /ary In an infinitesi- | degree with the person and that each | won nd child gives forth not v the characteristic human light, but | ight “that is absolutely unique and | GENERAL these fve energ and g ch mal mar i s from the human body are | to be appreciated by the | said Professor Goodspeed | » speaking of the discovery. | be that they are scen by the eyes certain of the smaller animals. For tance, & mouse probably sees a man in | rk room by the light of the man him- | Professor Goodspeed’s discovery was made public for the first time a fow days ce in a paper read by him before American Philosophical Society. It | was entitled, “Some Results of an Ex-| perimental Research, Demonstrating New | and Striking Properties of the Field Sur- rounding a Crookes Tube.” While a Crookes tube was used by Pro- Goodspeed in his remarkable ex- iments, the X-rays flowing from the were not permitted to flow toward photographic plates. The unusual disturbance was absorbed by Pro- or Goodspeed's own body and there sformed into the rays by which the photographs were made. HOW DISCOVERY WAS MADE. Te tube made possible the discovery its production of exaggerated wave and their consequent absorp- and diffusion with unusual force by hs human body. The process of absorp- ton and diffusion goes on, however, even 1hough no Crookes tube be present to in- | fluence the matter from which the rays emanate. Iren,"brass and many other substances do not give off the newly discovered rays as freely as doeg the human bedy".” Then, thepe are other sybstances whose radia- tion is fer more active than that from man, as, for Instance, “radium.” the source of whose potential energy is still the great puzzic of the scientists of the day. Professor Goodspeed's experiments sug- gest the theory that the light coming from radjum is the transformed activity of dark rays that have undergone absorp- tion. Tt suggested also that the com- paratively dark rays flowing from the hu- map body are the transformation of the light rays in which the human body is ) conaitions tior | from which the air has been exhausted. b: athed during its lifetime. However. directly or Indirectly, this may on the question of the source of radium’s” activ it is certainly in line with weli. known principles of physical sclence. g | INVESTIGATION CONTINUES. The character and properties of the new | Tays have not vet been fully learned. | Professof Goodspeed is experimenting constantly and' carefull od the results | of his labore will be made known as soon as thev shall be verified. | Of the radiographs that have been| made from an -ordinary photographic plate by the light from Professor Good- speed’s hand all have been made at night in room so dark that it was absolutely lightproof. This has been the manner of their making: A Crookes focus tube was first placed in operation within its lightproof biack is form of tube is a glass globe A cave receiver concentrates the ca- thode rays generated by an electrical ap- | paratus upon a piece of platinum. There | {be cathode rays are changed into X or| Roentgen rayvs, which radiate from the | piatinum plate. The accompanying illustrations will en- | able one to understand how the speed” photographs were obtained. The box coutaining the tube was placed in such a position that the platinum plate | directed the rays upward. Upon the top | of .the ‘box .there was then placed five | pleces of lead, niled one on top. of the other. Lead is impervious to the X-rays. | TUpon the top of the lead was placed. the | photograph!c plate. inclosed in a light- proof box. Upon the top of the box con- taining the plate was a cylinder of brass | with @ small aperture in its side. Within | the cylinder and resting upon the iid of the box containing the plate were placed | a cent, & gold ring and a plece of alumi- num. The top of the cylinder was sealed with two heavy pieces of zinc. The only | piace through which the rays couid reach the objects to be photographed was the! aperture in the side. All the time the room was In darkness | €0 dense that the human eye could dis- | cern absolutely nothing. Professor Good- speed then held his hand a distance of | three inches from the aperture in the eylinder for three minutes. At the end ! | of that period the plate was taken from | its box, developed. and the radiographs | of the ring, the cent and the plece of | aluminum_were found upon it. SOME OTHER RESULTS. In another experiment two apertures were made in the cylinder. Before one of these was held the hand of Professor Goodspeed. The other aperture was.unob- | structed. The plate, when developed. | showed a broad, brilllant stream of light | where the rays from the hand had been | directed upon it. and only a faint, brush- like streak marked the averture that had been uncovered. The faint streak may be explained by the presence of the clothed | human bodv. Further experiments showed that the rays from the human hand pass with dif- | flculty through glass and with ease through aluminum. Other differentiation is the subject of experiments that are now being made. Professor Goodspeed made the experi- | ment which led to his discovery on April | 6. 1903, while photographing with X-rays. He was using an iron tripod stand, with a ring-shaped top as a support {or his pho- tographic platé. when he noticed that the plate when exposed to the X-ravs was influenced by the iron ring bzlow. A bronze ring wider than the iron sup- port was then placed above the plate. Development showed that the part of the photographic plate just above ‘the iron ring was appreciably less affected through the bronze than that part that was under the overlapping portion of the bronze. That phenomenon inspired a long and patient investigation. Experiments with other metals showed varying effects upon the plate. Each metal was shown to have a distinct ana characteristic radiance. The effect of the rays was to reach around into the shadow of the object impervious to the X-rays. It acted in a direction opposite to that of the rays from the tube. 1t has long been a question of scientific knowiedge that from all substances comes radiant energy, but the character and properties of that energy, have, until now, been uriknown. It is mueh too early, say the scientists, to foretell what of prac- tica] use may come from the discovery. ‘While no name has yet been given to the ‘new rays, the precedent made in the naming of the Roentgen rays would in- dicate that they will be called the Good- speed rays. | THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL. JOFN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. ‘Acdress Communications to W. S. LEAKE, M ' SUNDAY JUNE 7, 1903 Publication Office. ..Third and Market Streets, 8. F. AMERICA AND GREATER BRITAIN. S an American citizen Andrew Carnegie of course takes no part in British party politics, but nevertheless he has been telling the British people certain truths which may.ha‘\'c the effect of moderating their enthusiasm over the Chamberlain policy of erecting Britain and her colonies into a great federated empire under the title “Greater Britain.” He has told them that under no circumstances can they compete with the United States as a world power, and has intimated to them that the sooner they cease trying to do so the better it will be for _thcm. % In a statement recently published in a London paper Mr. Carnegie is quoted as saying: “You led the world once, but now we have taken your place. Yot cannot compete with us in industry, and _\Ju will be happier if you acknowledge it. Our manufactures are already three times as va]ual‘)le ¢ of our great in- as yours, and our exports greater. How can you compete with us? The very dustries gives us an immense advantage. By standardization we can supply the (]El‘l‘lfil?d}S of'thc world at prices you cannot think of. You are exhausting your coal and iron very |‘ap}dl_\'. Yeour rate of increase in population must soon begin to diminish. You are already full up. We are only beginning. We have plenty of territory entirely unexplored, where there will be some day a great population. Your colonies are not invr-casing. ‘Australia ssems full. It is a mere rivfd around an empty interior. South Africa is not a white man's country, and your Government's policy of encour- aging emigration there, especially of women, almost a crime. ‘As for Canada, compare her growth in the nincteenth century with that of the United States. Her only chance of a future is to S is throw in her lot with the Americans.” 3 ) If a view be taken of a future indefinitely prolonged, it may be objected that Mr. Carnegie in that statement has underrated the possibilities of both Canada and Australia. for each of those ries may eventually sustain an enormous population and attain great wealth: but if the view of the future be limited to a time within any measurable distance from our own day, his words arc indisputably true. No man can now foresec an era in which Canada and Austraha, even if united in a federated empire with Great Britain. will constitute a rival to the United States. The future then is ours in spite of all that Great Britain can do, and were the British statesmen and in- dustrial captains wise. they would prepare for the inevitable instead of straining themselves and wast- cout hing resources ina vain effort to retain a passing supremacy. It is not in commerce and industry only that Mr. Carnegic warns the British of the futility of striving to compete with us: he foresees for America an equal supremacy in the world of politics. Indulging once more his favorite dream of a posdible Anglo-Saxon alliance, he says that should such a vast federation be formed, the capital would of necessity be not in London but in \Vashington, and he reminds the British that it is now ecasier for one to travel from Scotland to Washington than from San Francisco to Washington. Our capital therefore is becoming some- thing like the geographical center-of the Inglish-speaking race; and whether there ever be Anglo-Saxon alliance or not, Washington is destined to be the most important capital ing their rema an S in the world. When Mr. Carnegie years ago first attracted British attention by his wealth and by his vig- orous | exultant way of speaking and writing of the present prosperities and future grandeurs of the United States they treated him as something of a wordy enthusiast, and one of their wits dubbed him “I'he Star-Spangled Scotchman.” They take him more seriously now. His predictions of coming greatness have already been so nearly realized that he is now recognized not as a dreamer but as one of the clearest headed of thinkers along industrial and commercial lines. He may wan- der into dreams when he turns his mind to international politics, but when it comes to business he ‘has as firm a grasp of facts and knows as many of them as any other man in our time. Conse- quently his warning as to the folly of further straining British credit ang expanding British ex- penditures. and angmenting British taxes, in an effort to uphold the old-time British leadership in the world, may have some effect in molding public opinion and determining how far the Govern- ment will be permitted to go in the direction of federating the empire at the cost of the mother country ; A SULTRY SEASON. OSTON estimates of the damage done by forty-eight days of uninterrupted drouth in the Fast are to the effect that the Joss to the crops in New England’alone will amount to up- ward of $70.000,000. Doubtless that is an exaggeration, for when one is estimating a mis- fortune, due to excessive heat, the figures, like the thermometer, are likely to run up too high. Still there can be no disputing that the damage has been great. The fact that hay at this sea- son of the year has advanced to $ ton in Boston and to $20 a ton in ‘remote country districts is evidence that the watchful dealers see no hay in sight. The weather has overwhelmed the grass. 1f the estimates of the loss in New England be even approximately correct, the losses of the North Atlantic States as a whole must be enormous, for the drouth has affected the whole country along the seaboard from the Canadian line to Maryland. While we have:been startled by the destruction wrought in Kansas, lowa, Nebraska and Missouri by the roaring floods of swollen rivers, it appears the drouth, in silence and without violence, has been destroying ten times as much as the most yiolent of the storms. It is not the flood region of the Middle West that has suffered most during the past month, but the parched fields of New York and Pennsylvania and New England. 1f the present extraordinary condition of the weather holds much longer this will probably be noted for many a year to come as the sultry summer. Some force not clearly understood even by expert meteorologists has brought about an unusually long and severe drouth over the whole north temperate zone. Reports from Europe are almost as bad as those from our Atlantic States, and cven in California, where great aberrations of weather are almost unknown, there has been a lack of spring rains and an unusual degree of heat in every section of-the: State. Fortunately but little damage is likely to occur with us, for a dry summer is with us the normal condition of affairs. The utmost we are likely to suffer will be a little discomfort from the heat. We are therefore able to give a full and abundant sympathy to the stricken farmers of the East; and along with it the carnest counsel to come West and live where the weather is comfortable. 25a Not at all daunted by the failure of the American efforts to produce rain by bombarding the skies, the Canadians are going to try it. The military authorities have given orders to turn the artillery loose at one or two points in Ottawa. Perhaps that is as good a use as any for Canadian guns, but it is safe to say the bombardment will not bring rain enough to pay for the powder. A N L Bryan's announced retirement from Democratic leadership virtually amounts to a declaration that he purposes to stay with silver; so long as that is not an issue he will not be a candidate. But he evidently believes the white metal will bob up serenely some day and then he expects to go to the White House on a tidal wave. . L it/ LT B Perhaps Uncle Sam’s irrigation policy may some day drain the upper waters of the Nebraska and Kansas streams to save the low countries from the floods that have proven so disastrous in late years: or if Uncle Sam does not do the work himself, he may show the local statesmen how to do it. S AT T g 1f the i)mpnsal of the Indianapolis doctor that all insane people be put to death should be carried out, he would be one of the first to go, for there is as much insanity in his proposition as in most of those advocated by the inmates of asylums. e Bt Rl Some political dreamers are recommending the nomination of Joe - Wheeler as Vice Presi- dent on the ticket with Roosevelt, but Joe is a Democrat, and while he is a'good fellow, the Repub- lican party is not going to take chances with him. King Alfonso 'bf Spain has just inherited a fortune of $7.000,000, and now if he loses his job of holding down a throne he can still"hold his head up in the matrimonial market and cut a wide swath through the smart set. Tt is reported that Mont Pelee is again active, but this time it is not any more active than the people, for they are reported to be scampering out of the neighborhood wholesale summer excursion. with all the acti y of a Time was when appendicitis was a strictly high-class affair and none but a prominent citizen could have-it, but it.is now reported that two convicts in New Jersey are afflicted with it. \ PUBLISHERS PROMISE OF NEW FICTION. GIVE EXCELLENT |a | During four days something like $150,000 | ping at $15%. Still another record was ! This also was a first edition and contained \ | cruise, which had to do I belleve with the e ! PROLIFIC AUTHOR WHO IS AT WORK O} WILL BE EAGERLY LOOKED FOR AMONG OF FICTION SOON TO BE PUBL NEW NOVEL THAT | NUMEROUS WORKS | A ISHED. ONDON, June 6.—Messrs. Me- | thuen stand at the head as pub- | lishers of forthcoming first-class fiction, beginning with a book from the pen of Henry James. There will follow novels by Bar- | ing Gould and Eden Philpotts, who, like | Baring Gould, likes to write about the | Weat country. That bright writer who | subscribes herself E. Nesbit has finfshed a | book ertitled *““The Literary Sense of' Mrs, Cromer.”” Mrs. Helen Mathers, Mrs. Mead, Miss Mary Findlater and Miss Adeline Sergeant are among the estab- lished favorites who will have works pub- Mshed by Messrs. Methuen. So is Clark Russell, and If “Darrel of the Blessed Isies,” by Trving Bacheller, be as good as | Eben Holden” was, he ought to| strengthen his hold upon readers of fic- | tion. | s rooms have been the scene of of sales recently. Sotheb, remarkable serfes passed through the auctioneer’s hands for | valuable and rare books and old manu- | scripts. Some remarkable prices were | pald, especially for old Shakespeares and | imprints from the second impression of Shakespears's works, which contained a | reputed exceedingly rare Richard Haw- | kins title page, with portrait by Droes-| hout, bound in old calf. | There was a very spirited contest, the | treasure eventually going for $4250, a rec- | ord price. The last time this same im- pregsion changed hands the sum given | was only $2480. The third impression of the same, also containing the Droeshout | portrait, made $2850. | Then a set of Scott’s Waverley Novels, | as originally published, fetched $2500. For | the first edition of “Rebinson Crusee” an- | other record was made. It was certalnly | a fine old copy. in old calf binding, which | excited kéen bidding, the hammer stop- | created by the changing hands of a copy | of Isaak Walton's “Compleat Angler.” | some very fine old engravings. It brought | Erskine Childers. who is 2 nephew of one of Mr. Gladstone's Ministers, has a book coming out with Smith & Elder en- | titled “The Riddle of the Sands.” It is realistically described in the sub-title as | a ‘“record of secret service recently achieved.” Mr. Childers appears as the | editor of this record, saying of it: “In| October last my friend Carruthers visited me in my chambers and under a pro- visional pledgc of secrecy told me frank- 1y the whole adventure described in these pages.” The adventure so introduced arose connection with a yachting in averting of a great national danger. Mr. Childers Is already known through a book in which he describes his war experiences as a city imperial volunteer major. YLK T W. P. Drury, who has hitherto been known by his volumes of very readable short stories, is now blossoming into a writer of longer fiction. His first full length novel is about ready for publica- tion by Chapman & Hall. The novel will bear the title of “The Shadow of the Quarterdeck,” and is a story of Jife in the British navy, seeking to give a true and impartial picture of the ups and downs of a career In the senlor service. . . A few years ago there were a few houses left in London wherein Dr. John- son had lived. The house in Gough square, where he compiled the work which earned for him the title of the great lexi- cographer, still temains, but, seeing how the demon of improvement has laid hands on the Strand and Fleet street, it is cer- tain that Gough square will soon contdin few remnants of the eighteenth century. A proposal is now afoot to secure No. 17 Gough square while yet there is time and keep it as a memorial of Johnson. No doubt it wauld be fmpossible to make it quite as representative of Johnson as the house at Chelsea is of Carlyle, but it is expected with well cho#n furniture of the right period and old prints and editions of Johnson's works and other appropriate accessories that it should be , possible to turn the place inte an admirable’ home for the Johnson Club and make it an object for the visits of pilgrims. Certainly an effort will be made to prevent the disappearance of the last remaining residence of the subject of the finest biography im the world. —_————— Americans in English Eyes. To an immense mass of the English p ple the American is still.a thin, sallow fidgety person with a goatee beard and a nasal accent. Many Englisimen have « fixed idea that the American workman is by overworked. underpaid, unprotected trade unions and given to weak conces- sions in the matter of machinery. This imaginary figure is the slave of the trusts the victim of dear food and undermined by a besetting ambition to become Presf- dent of the United States. It is a prett) picture, but the report of the commission of English trade unionists will make short work of it. These English workmen, mov- ing about through the workshops, have seen the American workman as he is. v have found that he i{s not more “hustled’ "than his English brother and certainly not less Independent. They have realized that amazmg fact of equali- ty which strikes every traveler in the face *hen he lands in New York. It is an atmosphere which charges everything. When every workman can approach his employer directly with his grievance with- out fear of dismissal. then the element of trade unionism dwindles in importance When workmen are encouraged to Invent and lcarn by experience the superiority of brain over muscle. then their hatred of machinery disappears. In a country whers every workman hopes to be a master him self the sense of feudai dependence cann exist. The paralysis of caste is removed. The workman has an interest in the firm— he is not a mere machine, but a human being co-operating in the work worthy of his humanity. In such a country the bar- rier between employer and employed is removed and human energy -circulates freely throughout the system like blood in a healthy body.—London News, ————— Special information supplied daily to tusiness houses. and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen's), 230 Caif. fornia street. Telephone Main 1042 & —_——e.— Townsend's California glace fruits ana candles, 50c a pound., in artistic fire- etched boxes. A nice present for Eastern friends. 715 Market st., above Call bidg. * —————— Manager (to new actor)—Your perform ance of Hamlet is. the very worst I've ever seen. If there had been any money in the house. I should have, been bound in honor to return it at the doors. As it is; several friends have sent in and peremp- torily demanded that thelr names should be removed from the free list.—Glasgow Evening Times. But It’s Hot Qo0 NOW is the time to buy an ALASKA Refrigerator It will k. islons longer LE ‘-" Kg:fi’fl“.:y other Refr in the marke Lergest stock the Pacific Coast. W.W. Monlagve & Co. SAN FRANCISCO. o in the shade d gr:at:st variety on