WOULD ACHIEVEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 193, 17 July 1939, Page 2

WOULD ACHIEVEMENT

A BOMB IN THE SKY. The wonders of the stratosphere reveal themselves to those who are patient and intrepid enough to probe into the heights. One of the most important flights into tile stratosphere was made in 1933 in what is known as the Settle-Fordney Flight, when instruments were taken more than eleven miies above the surface of the earth. Professor Arthur Compton, the Nobel Prize winner in physics, having investigated the results of this expedition and compared them with the findings of other flights, has explained to the American Physical Society what has been learned from them about the mysterious cosmic rays. His experiments have shown that the rays come from far outside the solar system, and though the sun has a slight effect on their strength it would appear that these rays really come from the remote..parts of the universe. The professor declares that there is reason to hope that the further study of these rays will bring us important information regarding the history of the universe itself.

In what way do these rays come to the earth We must remember that the earth as it spins through space is a great magnet, and it has been found that the' ravs vary in intensity according to whether the} - approach from the east or from the west. They are more intense from the east. It was only in 1933 that this fact was proved, and it was further proved at the same time that part of the cosmic rays was positively charged, thought it was not possible to tell what kind of positivelycharged particles these were. The measurements on the flight wore taken on a wonderful self-recording instrument devised by Professor Compton. It took the place of the small instruments which balloons had previously carried and which gave results difficult of interpretation. Professor Compton’s instrument enahles a photographic record to he taken of the passage of the ensirde rays through a steel bomb filled with compressed argon gas and surrounded by a 4-ineli sh’obl containing lead shot weighing 200 pounds.—(L).