Electricity for Boys

by James Slough Zerbe

Then, ordinary light is capable of refraction. This is shown by a ray of light bending as it passes through a glass of water, which is noticed when the light is at an angle to the surface.

The X-ray will pass through the water without being changed from a straight line. The foregoing being the case, it was but a simple step to conclude that if it were possible to find a means whereby the human eye could see within the ultra-violet beam, it would be possible to see through opaque substances.

From the discovery so important and far reaching it was not long until it was found that if the ultra-violet rays, thus propagated, were transmitted through certain substances, their rates of vibration would be brought down to the speeds which send forth the visible rays, and now the eye is able to see, in a measure at least, what the actinic rays show.

This discovery was but the forerunner of a still more important development, namely, the discovery of radium. The actual finding of the metal[p. 186] was preceded by the knowledge that certain minerals, and water, as well, possessed the property of radio-activity.

Radio-activity is a word used to express that quality in metals or other material by means of which obscure rays are emitted, that have the capacity of discharging electrified bodies, and the power to ionize gases, as well as to actually affect photograph plates.

Certain metals had this property to a remarkable degree, particularly uranium, thorium, polonium, actinium, and others, and in 1898 the Curies, husband and wife, French chemists, isolated an element, very ductile in its character, which was a white metal, and had a most brilliant luster.

Pitchblende, the base metal from which this was extracted, was discovered to be highly radio-active, and on making tests of the product taken from it, they were surprised to find that it emitted a form of energy that far exceeded in calculations any computations made on the basis of radio-activity in the metals hitherto examined.

But this was not the most remarkable part of the developments. The energy, whatever it was, had the power to change many other substances if brought into close proximity. It darkens the color of diamonds, quartz, mica, and glass. It changes some of the latter in color, some kinds being[p. 187] turned to brown and others into violet or purple tinges.

Radium has the capacity to redden the skin, and affect the flesh of persons, even at some considerable distance, and it is a most powerful germicide, destroying bacteria, and has been found also to produce some remarkable cures in diseases of a cancerous nature.

The remarkable similarity of the rays propagated by this substance, with the X-rays, lead many to believe that they are electrical in their character, and the whole scientific world is now striving to use this substance, as well as the more familiar light waves of the Roentgen tube, in the healing of diseases.