Edison and the X-Ray Song

[Starkton]

In The Antique Phonograph of September 2012, Allen Koenigsberg wrote a very good article about Edison and the discovery of X-rays in early 1896.

With the help of Sam Brylawski and David Sager of the Library of Congress, Allen could locate a total of six sheet-music covers related to X-rays, published between March 1896 and January 1897. The first of these was the X Rays March Two-Step. After copyrighting the title of X Rays for a march composed by her, Julia S. Hotchkiss sought Edison's permission to dedicate the march to him as "one of the greatest men of the 19th century" and also asked for the consent to use his portrait. Edison did not refuse her request but recommended to dedicate the march to the X-ray discoverer, Roentgen.

Here is a seventh, heretofore unknown, X-ray sheet-music cover of 1896 from my collection. It is "respectfully dedicated to Thomas A. Edison" and bears a portrait of the young inventor, but I found no correspondence between Mr. Strachan or the publisher Louis H. Ross & Co. and Edison.

[Roaring20s]

I like this sort of topical amusement and branding with celebrity. The X Ray Two Step!

Here's background about Edison Laboratories, Clarence Dally, and their X-Ray research...
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history ... ay-vision/
http://home.gwi.net/~dnb/read/edison/edison_xrays.htm

James.

[FloridaClay]

It is an interesting article. Among other things I found out by reading it that Edison's inventions include the fluoroscope and that he had lost skin and hanks of hair from the radiation while working on it. Edison also had some poor soul's head under an X-Ray machine for an hour trying to get a picture of his brain for a New York newspaper! They had no clue yet of the danger.

Clay

[Starkton]

Here is a nice article which brings X-rays and the phonograph together:

Edison’s Latest. He Has Discovered That X-Rays are a Form of Sound-Wave. – New York, April 22. – Criticisms of Thomas A. Edison’s claim that the X-rays are a form of sound waves have led the inventor to make further experiments to prove the theory. He has both seen and heard the sound waves, one of his visual proofs being as follows:

A plate of steel ⅓ of an inch thick and 2 ½ feet square is set up in a frame so as to bring the center on a line with the fluorescent bulb. When the light is turned on and the fluorescope [sic; fluoroscope] is held close to the center, no light can be seen, but when the fluorescope is moved along the back of the plate, about an inch or two from the surface and out toward the edge, the rays of light or sound appear on the surface of the fluoroscope.

The sound wave strikes the surface of the plate and diffuses itself over it. The waves radiate from the bulb in all directions. They strike the edge of the steel, turn right around the edge and run to a central point. That is possible only because the sound wave proceeding from the fluorescent bulb is many thousand times slower than light. But one of the clinchers of the “wizard’s” contention is that the sound waves can not only be seen, but heard as well.

With a phonograph receiver Mr Edison’s assistants heard the sound waves around the edge of the screen. As they approached the edge the sounds became more distinct. When they moved the free end of the tube to the center of the sheet of steel they could hear nothing; but close to the edges they could hear it, at the same points where they could be detected with the fluorescope. And when Mr. Edison told of that he added: “But I have made some experiments that are better than that.”

These experiments, he intimates, are conclusive, and will be made known in due time. (Aspen Tribune, Aspen, Pitkin County, 23 April 1896, p. 1)