Edison Working on the X Rays.

Hastings Standard, Issue 37, 9 June 1896, Page 4

Edison Working on the X Rays.

THE RAPID PROGRESS OF INVENTION.

The following article is from the New York Journal of March 22 :

Mr Edison has succeeded in penetrating the human body with the naked eye. He looked into the heart and lungs, and examined the arteries, the blood vessels, and muscles of one of his assistants. With the powerful eathofla light behind his patient ho gazes through a screen of prepared chemicals and sees every organ of the body as plainly as he sees the dishes on his dinner table. If his subject stands very close to the light nothing ■whatever is seen—the light goes through bones and everything ju-t as sunlight goes through glass. If the patient steps a foot or two away from the light the human skeleton stands revealed. A step further from the light. and the muscles, tissues, and organs of the body appear as plainly as if there was no outside covering of flesh.

"Here," he said to a friend, pointing to a great, box-like structure the size of a door, " that is my screen. I will have a man step in front of that, put four or five Crookes tubes behind him, and you and I or a surgeon will look through him as clean and clear as though he were made of gauze. We can look through his eyes into his skull and see everything that is to be seen there. A physician may diagnose his case in an instant. lie will simply put his man before the screen, and then penetrate him through from head to foot." The fluorescent substance used by Mr Edison, and declared by bim to be the most perfect thing of the kind discovered so far, is tungstate of calcium ; in other words, tungstate and lime. The two substances are fused in a furnace, and at a proper degree of heat form little crystals, perhaps oneeighth the size of a French pea. These crystals are glued to a piece of paper by means of collodiuni, a transparent celluloid paint. In the case of the huge screen that Mr Edison is building for taking at a glance the entire internal organisation of a man, the chrystals would be spread directly on an inch plank. The screen is made in the shape of a monster mill hopper, standing on end. The face on which the crystals are applied will be about eight feet high and four feet broad. To this face will be fastened sides that will slant inward to a sharp point. At this point there will be left a slit just large enough to see through with ease. This slit will be perfected by means of a rubber flap in such a way as to exclude all light when the eye is applied to it. The screen will be set up so that the side on which the tungstate of calcium has been glued faces a row of four or live Crookes tubes, set one above the other at] an equal distance. The person to be examined will then step in between the screen and the light, and he will be instantly penetrated and become visible to the eves of the examiner at the screen. Mr Edison had run out for a few moments from the darkroom, in which he had been experimenting, and was searching after a new chemical that was to be used in the test. He got what he wanted, and, after watching the X rays come up and die down and come up again in the Crookes tubes than were on the pumps for exhaustion he said:

'• Now, there you are. Turn on the current, Brown," to his assistant. " That looks perfect, doesn't it ? As fiir as we can see, we have there the X rays, the same condition that exists when we get out our best results. That's what is confusing ; for when voa take this screen and look through it everything is pitch dark, perfectly Mack. Try it yourself." The wizard handed nie the screen, which is a miniature of the big screen which he proposes to use for his lifesize examination. It looked not unlike the hopper of a small eider mill. The tube was mounted and connected to the powerful current that was on tap. In a few seconds a purplish blue light became visible. It gradually changed to a pale yellow. "Try the screen now," said Mr Edison. Instead of the black darkness there was a brilliant white patch of It was intense, without, however, being afc all blinding. It was rather cold and lifeless, having very much the same effect that moonlight might have if it were intensified fifty-fold. " Put your hand to the face of the screen. Do you see anything?" What I saw almost made me jump back. There was every bone in my band, as clear and distinct and cleancut as if there had never been anv flesh on it. At first it seemed rather horrible, this skeleton hand. But the sensation of horror soon quieted down, and there was an intense fascination in thus being able to see the bones. The knuckle joints showed as plainly as did the larger bones. Every line and curve could be easily traced. Between the bones of the hand were wide spaces, such as are seen in the hands of skeletons in museums. Nothing was left of the tissue. In my absorption of this startling, novel spectacle I forgot everything else until I heard Sir Edison say, Now try your wrist. Don t bother about moving your coat sleeve or taking off your cuffs. They form no impediment.'' The screen was shifted to the wrist over the coat and cuff and shirt and everything else. The boiies stood out as distinctly as they had on the naked hand.

Up and up the screen was shifted, reaching the elbow and then the shoulder, and still the wonderful rays went through everything, just as if there had been no clothing or Hesh there.

" What a pity," remarked the wizard, while I was still speechless at all this manifestation, " that we have not got a really good tube, such, for

instance, as we had last night. If we had you would sec things that would certainly startle yon. • Imperfect as our apparatus still is, we had no trouble in seeing through thin sheets of metal, and when we get our rays strong enough it will be no trick at all to see through four or live inches of iron."

t; What seems to be the trouble? Why cannot the force be increased with the tubes as you have them?" '■ Because we cannot hold the vacuum when we put on the amount of force that I want."

To what .slight extent solid substances affect the passage of the X rays when the fluorescent screen is used was demonstrated by holding first a magazine and then a two-inch plank between the face of the screen and my hand. I first focused my hand alone. Then I slipped the magazine in, and the hand still stood as clear and distinct. Apparently the magazine, which was certainly over half an inch thick, ottered 110 more obstruction than if it had been so much cobweb. Next I tried the two-inch plank. Through this, too, the X rays went as easily and clearly and brightly as they had through the magazine, and the outline of the bones of the hand remained perfectly clear.

" What I want," he says. " is this : A man comes to a surgeon with a ballet in his arm ; the surgeon takes his X ray lamp and his fluorescent screen, and then and there locates the bullet. He looks through the arm, through the bone if necessary, and sees just- where it is. We've got that far already. Now, why .should he want to photograph that ; simply a useless waste of time. Again, a man comes with a broken arm; a screen is fitted to the surgeon's eyes, the X rays lamp is turned on and he can work with his eyes open, so to speak, for he can see the fracture. He can see how to set the bones ; see exactly whether they join or not ; see just as clearly as the cabinetmaker who glues together two pieces of wood. What would be the use of photography in that case ? I am done with the photographic end of it entirely. As for the other end—well, perhaps we may show you something before long that may be legitimately considered surprising."