A NEW RAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 January 1926, Page 3

A NEW RAY.

ONE HUNDRED TIMES POWER OF X-RAYS. British scientists are deeply inteiest. ed in the discovery or a new ray, claimed to be itX> times more powenui than .a-rays, and capable 01 passing through bit. ot soliu lead, says the London correspondent 01 the Christchurch Star. the ray Jias been discovered by Dr. R. A. Millikan, director of tlie physics laboratory of the (Jaikornia Institute of technology, and winner of the Nobe-i prize for physics. for twenty years a mysterious radiation has puzzled physicists, and fir. Millikan has now traced it. lLis researches have now led to the uelintte conclusion that rays of himerto uutmagined siiort wave Jengui exist, wliieii enter the highest atmosphere from the depttis ol outer space. Apparently these are born of the. disintegration ot atoms or of their transmutation. To account for them it is necessary to imagine that space is liiiccl with rays of one sort or another travelling in alt directions witli the speed o. light. 'lilts, Dr. Millikan says, is a conception which is almost too none, ■ Jit I a stimulus ot the imagination. Or. .Millikan, in the ansence of a ilium', simply calls the new lays ■pi-net i tiling lays. " Kir O.iver Lodge' fold (he Westminster Gazette Unit Dr. Millikan is a man the scientific woricl tospects, and described the disco, erv as very interesting. "I lia\e- no reason to lie .•".'pt leal, lie said, "hut it is 11 1 ■ .itsi I have heard of the discovery, li will be inleiesimg to know whet tier Lite rays liti'.e any curative \ nine. :'ney may be I 'co penetrating to he of an. \a:uc." I'r-oles.'or A. M Low said: ' qmiL. a long time ago 1. was asked wnat was mostly wanted in Ine seieminc world, atiei I. repl.ed, 'Some uutaou ini v e-tongt It conversion.’ my |oiot being tuat it is q.. 1 1 *‘ possible Ili.il there .ic other wave lengths aii.i <m.i"i puv--1 ioii.s of lie spectrum nbso.uu‘:,v miknowu to us. • A mongst llie.-.e waves. of wiiuii t.lie.-e are iiiali... you 111 :t.. tai.e one ov t.to I a 111 ili a r examples, dke lie; \- eiy s aml tile lays ol ordinary light, bu t we have no reason to slip). use I lie t urtin'." discoveries w.li not be mam' in that direction. ••'I lie X-rays at present Imve very \ aliinbie i itriil lie proper! ies but it Chios no I lollow Hint a more oenetrat 111lav woilicl necessarily lie more lieneiii'lil I. lior does It Ima.V, tloit a • or 'liter degree of peuelraling "ill i,i ate ( !;i« ,-a v of \ a Lie fiom Ibe point . v a of M -ra v ex atui na I ion The new wane length may rive el!eel> v. an- t.'lai.y diherenl from those of the X-ray."