Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-02-14 | Page 2 | New Variety of X-Ray is Found

NEW VARIETY OF I X-RAlfpil Powerful Rays Will Be Used for First Time Here in Treating Cancer CAMBHIIh-.K. Mass. Feb 14 ( ny 'the Associated Press.) Discoveries' I made bv William Duane. professor of I hlo-physlcs at Harvard, working In I Collaboration with research students. I ihiive made It posjnble according to. Harvard physicists, to secure X-rays I of more penetrating quality than have been obtained In this eounto". and the new rays arc to b used for the flrt time In America f"r the alleviation of cancer. EFFECT OS CAN I It While It Is stated by Professor Duane that neither X-rays nor radium 1 should be considered a permanent cure for all cancer, It hns been long ( known radium has a marked alleviate effect upon this disease, and the Harvard Har-vard physicists: have reason to believe that the effwta. of the new X-rays will be equally beneficial. The Harvard cancer commissioner Is cr'Ctlng a new building in U.'n Whore an X-ray plant will be Installed ,ix well as commission's radium plant. Confident that the life of cancer patients pa-tients may be prolonged, life Insurance Insur-ance companies of Hoston have given $30 mi l tow .i ' the n w b i Id'tr, . Here the experiment will be performed The significance of the discovery was explained In a statement made for the Associated Press at Harvard. -U v M INTAGES. "The advantage of X-ruvs over radium ra-dium Is that the latter Is scarce and expensive, costing over $100,000 a gram If X-rays were used it wou'id be possible to make the ravs more powerful than hs been possible with th limited amount of radium available. availa-ble. The trouble with X-rnys has been that they are not as penetrating as tho so-called "gamma rnys" of radium ra-dium and the problem of the Harvard physicists has been to secure this quality The Harvard physicists after many experiments found that a physical law known as the 'quantum law' npplle.l to the X-ray spectrum and discovered that thev could Increase the frequency of the ra by Increasing the voltage of current used in the X-ray tube "Professor Duane reports that the tube bursts under a volta.ee of more than 150.000 volts, but that a sufficient! suffi-cient! high voltnge has been secured to make the X-rays nearly as effec-tfve effec-tfve 1 the jnmrrie rays. "The Germans. If Is said, have made gre.it headway recently with the use of high frequency X-rays In allcvlat-j allcvlat-j lng cancer. DANG! R in I XPERIM1 NT "A ast amount of work has been .lone by Professor Duane. Some may prove . ffeetlve In Increasing the medical medi-cal value of X-rays but much of It Is lo ink' done with the scientific purpQOC of getting to know more about the ! mysterious rays. "l ong continued exposure to X-rays Is so dangerous to the operator that the yreatosi peine have lo be taken. In the laboratory at Harvard the X-ray plant Is kept in a room by Itself and the rays are sent out through a slit' In the w ill The brick wall Is reinforced rein-forced with lead, and a lead s-nen I-placed I-placed across the door."