Eastern Mennonite University is apparently home to a science treasure. John L. Horst, professor emeritus of physics, recently salvaged a piece of physics history from storage he'd known was there but didn't know what to do with. The treasue is a large chart from 1938 depicting the "principles of electromagnetic radiations." Not only is the 3½-by-5-foot chart 70 years old, its editor, Arthur Compton, was a Nobel prize winner in physics. Compton won the prize in 1927 for the Compton Effect, a physics principle showing that X-rays are photons that have quantum particle properties. Compton also proved that cosmic rays are photons from deep outer space. Horst says the salvaged chart shows "a flurry of ideas, depicting how various parts of the spectrum are generated. "Many applications - from astronomy, chemistry, engineering, medicine and physics - are part of the spectrum, with everything related to existing technologies of 1938," when the chart was created. The chart now hangs on the wall adjacent to the current physics laboratory in EMU's Suter Science Center.
