X Rays are Material

So Says Nikola Tesla After Crucial Investigation.

The Roentgen rays — the wonderful X rays, as commonly called — which have astonished the world by bringing light out of dark places, even illuminating the human body, are now declared to be material particles by no less an authority than Nikola Tesla.

Mr. Tesla has been led to take this view for some time from the results of experiments which he has been conducting in his laboratory. But now he comes forward without hesitation and says that the electrical conditions within the tube from which the rays issue produce absolute particles. They are material as cannon balls, infinitesimal and attenuated, it is true, but actual material which bombard the glass and any object which may come in line with their motion. And this motion is no insignificant thing and would make the most rapid moving cannon ball appear to stand still; for Mr. Tesla says his experiments show them to move at a velocity of not less than 62 miles a second. In the measurements he uses he calls it “100 kilometers a second.”

Mr. Tesla further says he can feel the effects of these particles striking against his eye and has noted the sensation produced when they come in contact with his brain.

Mr. Tesla makes public his conclusions in relation to the Roentgen rays in a letter to The Electrical Review.