Robert A. Millikan

MILLIKAN

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 4/1/2014 at 22:30:55

Jackson Sentinel, Nov. 17, 1925

Prof. Robert A. Millikan, who delivered a lecture Friday night at the University of Iowa, is the idol of the hour in scientific circles. He came to Iowa City from Madison, Wisconsin, where his paper "High Frequency Rays of Cosmic Origin," was hailed by fellow members of the National Academy of Sciences as the biggest event since the announcement of Einstein's theory.

No claims are made by Professor Millikan himself, but his fellow scientists point out that the new ray he has heralded offers an explanation of the organization of all matter. He does not, however, deny this conclusion from his facts.

One nationally known scientist has been quoted as saying "Millikan has seemingly removed one more veil between man and his understanding of the universal mystery." The ray which he has discovered is explained as the antithesis of the radium rays are matter destructive. They are spoken of by the discoverer as "signals to tell us of changes that are taking place out in space in the nuclei of atoms."

The rays are very fast, the wave length having a frequency 1,000 times that of the ordinary x-ray and 100 times the Gamma ray that comes from radium. Rays of such frequency are faster than any that have been observed before.

Though now employed at the California Institute of Technology, Professor Millikan is a former Iowan. His father was a Congregational minister here for many years and Robert is a graduate of Maquoketa's high school and we insist on laying claim to him as a Maquoketa boy and the last time he was in our city, Professor Millikan said he was proud to lay claim on the Timber City as his boyhood home.

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