"What are these experiments that Doctor Thorndyke refers to?" she asked
presently.
"I can only answer you rather vaguely," I replied. "Their object, I
believe, is to ascertain whether the penetrability of organic substances
by the X-rays becomes altered by age; whether, for instance, an ancient
block of wood is more or less transparent to the rays than a new block
of the same size."
"And of what use would the knowledge be, if it were obtained?"
"I can't say. Experiments are made to obtain knowledge without regard
to its utility. The use appears when the knowledge has been acquired.
But in this case, if it should be possible to determine the age of any
organic substance by its reaction to X-rays, the discovery might be of
some value in legal practice--as in demonstrating a new seal on an old
document, for instance. But I don't know whether Thorndyke has anything
definite in view; I only know that the preparations have been on a most
portentous scale."
"How do you mean?"
"In regard to size. When I went into the workshop yesterday morning, I
found Polton erecting a kind of portable gallows about nine feet high,
and he had just finished varnishing a pair of enormous wooden trays,
each over six feet long.
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