Up Where the Rays Begin

The Army is very much interested in science these days. Its latest interest is cosmic rays. One reason: the rocket weapons of World War III may shoot through empty space above the atmosphere, where cosmic rays are loose. Another: cosmic rays may some day supply the key to a "super" atomic bomb, which will make the plutonium efforts look like firecrackers.

Starting this week, the Army Air Forces, in cooperation with the National Geographic Society, will make a series of long flights in a B-29 specially equipped to study cosmic rays. Scientific boss of the flights will be Dr. W. F. G. Swann, Director of Swarthmore's Bartol Research Foundation.

Cosmic rays are not only hard to observe but hard to understand. Dr. Swann believes they are protons and positively charged helium atoms which smack into the earth's atmosphere at enormous speeds. Where they come from, no one knows for sure.

Their fantastic energy is what makes them interesting. Even twenty billion volts is not the best they can do, and this is 200 times the energy of the champion electrons from General Electric's giant betatron. Cosmic rays can burrow hundreds of feet into the ground or penetrate 75 ft. of lead. Some, less energetic, are thought to be secondary particles scattered in showers when a primary particle hits an atom in the atmosphere.

During the projected flights, Dr. Swann will measure the frequency and direction of the rays at various altitudes and latitudes, using electronic instruments which register when a ray hits them, and tell the direction it came from. The Army's experiments will be more immediately practical. They will expose various metals and other materials to the rays, at high altitudes, and try to determine how they are affected by them. Such information should come in handy, the day rockets swoosh out above the atmosphere.

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