Tesla on the Nature of the Roentgen Rays

In our present issue we publish another important communication from Mr. Tesla in regard to the Roentgen rays. Mr. Tesla has worked ceaselessly, and in his articles, exclusively published in our columns, he has made most valuable contributions to the knowledge of this fascinating subject. His opinions carry the greater weight as they are supported by a mass of experimental evidence, and as his insight into many phenomena has proved to be true. What services has he not rendered to science and industry merely by his demonstrations of the action of air or gases in condensers and high-tension transformers! His present contribution is, in part, a summing up of the observations already made by him, and is particularly important in this, that it substantiates the ideas originally expressed by Professor Roentgen.

Mr. Tesla brings forward many convincing arguments to show that these rays consist of streams of matter in some primary condition, which is, to a certain extent, equivalent to saying that they are streams of ether into which the matter is dissolved by the violent impact.

There is thus opened up a wonderful possibility of transformation of matter into its primary constituents, never before contemplated or thought possible, and it is safe to say that a more absorbing subject for study and investigation could not be found in physical science.