The present generation were all very much interested in the discovery of X-rays.
With the aid of a battery and an induction coil, man causes an energetic electrical discharge to pass through a vacuum tube.
When the flying electrons strike upon a little metal target placed in their path, they produce the well-known Roentgen rays.
We have all become familiar with the great penetrating powers of these rays.
The electron may be left to tell its own story.
It was no surprise to us that we could produce what man calls X-rays, but we were very much surprised at the use to which man put these splashes which we made in the æther. A limited number of us had been producing X-rays on our own account for many ages, but I shall tell you of that in a later chapter, when you will hear how we made the world talk.
I must tell you of my own experiences in connection with these X-rays, which I hear some men describe also as Roentgen rays. I found myself once more within a large vacuum tube, and as soon as I felt a crowd of my fellows pushing me forward, I was quite prepared to be shot across the tube, as on previous occasions. Personally, I was not prepared for what was to come. Just as we reached the centre of the tube we collided with a metal plate or target. It was no joke to be pulled up so suddenly when travelling at a terrific speed. I noticed at the time that our very sudden stoppage had a peculiar effect upon the æther. Of course we never bothered about a name for this disturbance; it is man who requires to have names for everything. He was quite right to call this æther disturbance "X-rays," for even now he does not know the real nature of these. I have heard him describe them as thin pulses in the æther, but there is something more.
I may as well confess that although we observed this æther disturbance arising from our sudden stoppage, we paid little attention to it, until it became apparent that man was continuing to produce these rays for some special purpose. He had discovered that we could shoot these rays right through many solid substances which were not transparent to light. But I have not told you how man came to know that we could produce these penetrating rays.
On one occasion we were sending out these rays, which, by the way, do not cause any sensation in man's visionary apparatus. The room was in darkness. Some of the invisible rays fell upon a collection of small chemical crystals which were fixed on the surface of a screen. Our fellow-electrons, who were attached to the atoms of the crystals, were bestirred into action. They could not reflect the X-rays, but they set up regular trains of waves in the æther, some of which came within the range that affects man's vision. Man knew that this chemical screen could not produce light on its own account, and it became apparent that the vacuum tube must be sending some æther waves towards the chemical screen.