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DR. WILLIAM KONRAD ROENTGEN. pp. 69 to 85. Born in Holland, 1845. From a photograph by Hanfstaengl, Frankfort-on-the-Main. ]
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EDWARD P. THOMPSON, M.E., E.E. Mem. Amer. Inst. Elec. Eng. Mem. Amer. Soc. Mech. Eng. Author of “Inventing as a Science and an Art.”
PROF. WILLIAM A. ANTHONY, Formerly of Cornell University. Past President Amer. Inst. Elec. Eng. Author, with Prof. Brackett of Princeton, of “Text-Book of Physics.”
NEW YORK: D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, 23 MURRAY AND 27 WARREN STREET.
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Copyright, 1896, BY EDWARD P. THOMPSON, Temple Court Building, New York.
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IN addition to the illustrated feature for exhibiting the nature and practical application of X-rays, and for simplifying the descriptions, the book involves the disclosure of the facts and principles relating to the phenomena occurring between and around charged electrodes, separated by different gaseous media at various pressures. The specific aim is the treatment of the radiant energy developed within and from a discharge tube, the only source of X-rays.
Having always admired the plan adopted by German investigators in publishing accounts of their experiments by means of numbered paragraphs containing cross-references and sketches, the author has likewise treated the investigations of a large number of physicists. The cross-references are indicated by the section sign (§). By reference, the _analogy_, _contrast_, or _suggestiveness_ may be meditated upon. All knowledge of modern physics is based upon experiments as the original source. Inasmuch as many years may be expected to elapse before the innumerable peculiarities of the electrical discharge will be reduced to a pure science, and also in order that the contents of the book may be of value in the future as well as at present, the characteristic experiments of electricians and scientists are described, in general, by reference to their object, the apparatus used, the result, the inferences of the experimenter, and the observations of cotemporaneous or later physicists, together with a presentation here and there of theoretical matters and allusion to practical applications.