OBITUARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18322, 12 February 1923, Page 7

OBITUARY.

DR. W. K. RONTGEN.

DISCOVERER OF X-RAYS. Australian find N.Z- Cable Association (Reed. 4.30 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 10.

The death is announced of Dr. Wilhelm Konrad Rontgen, the discoverer of Xrays.

Dr. Wilhelm Konrad Rontgen was, born at Lennep, in Rhenish - Prusuia, in 1845. He received his early education in Holland, and then went to study at Zurich, ■where he took his doctor's degree in 1869. He became assistant to Kundt at Wurzburg, and afterwards at Strasbourg, becoming privatdozent. at the . latter university in 1874. Next year he was appointed professor of mathematics and physics nt the Agricultural Academy of Hohenkeim, and in 1876 he returned to Strasbourg as extraordinary professor. In 1879 he was chosen ordinary professor of physics and director of the Physical Institute at Giessen. whence in 1885 he removed in the same capacity to Wurzburg. It was at the latter place that ho made the discovery'for which his name is chiefly known, the Rontgen rays. In 1895, while experimenting with a highly-exhausted vacuum tube on the conduction of electricity through gases, he noticed that a paper screen covered with barium platinocyanide, which happened to be lying near, became fluorescent under the action of some radiation emitted from the' tube, which at the time was enclosed in a box of black cardboard. Further'investigation showed that this radiation had the power of passing through various ■; sub"-'' stances which are opaque to ordinary light, also of 'affecting , a 1 photographic plate. Its behaviour being curious in several .respects, particularly in regard to reflection and refraction, doubt arose in his mind whether it was to be looked upon as light or not, and he was led to put forward the hypothesis that it was duo to longitudinal vibrations in the ether, not to transverse ones like ordinary light, but in view of the uncertainty existing as to its nature he called it X-rays. For this discovery he received the Rumford medal of the Royal Society. Dr. Rontgen also conducted researches in' various other branches .of physics, including elasticity, capillarity of the conduction of heat in -crystals, the absorption or heat rays by different gases, etc.

MRS. SELBY-LOWNDES. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 4.5 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 10.

The death is announced of Mrs. SelbyLowndes, daughter of the late Frederick Norton, of New Zealand.

Mrs. Selby-Lowndes was the widow of Sir Edwin Ahercroraby Dashwood, eitrhth baronet, and married Colonel William Selby-Lowndes, of Whaddon Hall, Bletchley, in 1894.