Abstract
THE n-rays, so called because the first announcement of their existence came from Nancy, have attracted the attention of physicists and physiologists all over the world; but the peculiarity about them is that the phenomena said to be produced by these rays when they fall on a slightly fluorescing screen have been observed chiefly in France by Prof. Blondlot and others of his school, while many experienced observers in Germany, America, and England have wholly failed to obtain a satisfactory demonstration even of their existence. The reason is that the. so-called proof of their existence depends, not on objective phenomena that can be critically examined, but on a subjective impression on the mind of the experimenter, who sees, or imagines he sees, or imagines he does not see, a slight change in the degree of luminosity of a phosphorescing screen. It is true that, more than once, a photograph has been taken of such a screen supposed to be unaffected and contrasted with a photograph of the same screen when it was supposed to be affected by the rays, with the result that the patch of luminous surface appears to be a little brighter in the latter case than in the former. Even this photographic evidence, however, is unsatisfactory, as a slight difference in the time of exposure or in the method of development would readily account for the apparent contrast.
A Collection of Papers communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens.
By Prof. R. Blondlot. Translated by J. Garcin. Pp. xii + 83. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.) Price 3s. 6d. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MCKENDRICK, J. A Collection of Papers communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens . Nature 72, 195 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072195a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072195a0