I once wrote about, can't find it now anymore. Where should i start. Maybe with the latest trend in creating X-Ray machines powerful enough to take medical images based on... Scotch tape.
Anybody who ever peeled a sticky tape in the dark knows there is glowing at the separation area. If you never noticed just look at this video. But fewer people know that X-rays are also produced in the same time. 3M by example is trying to create cheap X-ray generators capable of medical imaging based on this principle.
If this could be done in Ancient Egypt. There was no scotch tape back then but there was enough tape like material. Proof is the... mummies that are wrapped in bandages. At each layer of bandages the future mummy was painted with resin based glue. Imagine trying to peel a bandage that was soaked with resin glue that was cured. Same effect as peeling scotch tape?
However i believe the source for practical purposes could be other. Intense friction is what creates X-rays when peeling scotch tape. Simply using squeaky shoes were layers of leather in the soles rub on each other could possibly also generate X-rays (the heavier the person, the greater the pressure, the more intense the friction). Also a squeaky floor. So it's simple to prove there could have been X-rays generated at will in Ancient Egypt, like in any time, created with available sources. Question is of course could they have possibly been used for meaningful purposes.
There are materials that fluoresce under X-ray. Some of them were used in the old X-ray machines (during modern times of course). An X-ray source lamp was placed on one side of one's body and a screen made of fluorescent materials was placed on the other. The procedure had to be done in complete dark in order for the examiner to see the weak image on that screen.
There could be also natural or even biological substances that fluoresce under X-ray we don't know about.
One more information before attempting to suggest a conclusion. Until relatively recently (and wondering why) it was believed it was impossible to build lenses which can focus X-rays. However it has been proved that X-rays can be focused through optics with lens with very low radius ("thick" like for advanced myopia) done with materials that do not absorb X-ray, which usually are found at the beginning of the Mendeleev table. Of course, wavelength of the x-ray dictating the radius of the lens, with softer requiring larger lens. But how about terahertz, which is in between visible and x-ray?
Beryl is a naturally occurring mineral made of aluminum, beryllium, oxygen etc.. that might be suitable for such purposes. Red beryl is a very rare form of beryl of which an artificial variety was also produced in the Soviet Union and then Russia quite easy, by growing crystals in a solution with all necessary minerals dissolved at relatively high temperature (300-600 C) reproducing natural growing conditions.
Emerald is related to beryl but has different impurities hence the color green.
Don't know about beryl but Egyptians had emerald mines.
About making lenses out of beryl and emerald. Nero is known to have had an emerald eyepiece though for optical purposes (visible light correcting lens). So the technology existed at least during his time.
And the question. Could they've been used for focusing R-rays on one's retina.
Now that we've got all the pieces together, let's ask ourselves if these masonic googles claimed to be used only for ritual purposes could be indeed of ancient inspiration and recreated during and after industrial revolution. Could they be used for simply having what the Sci-Fi writers called X-ray vision (could they have been inspired from somewhere).
Human retina of course is not fluorescing in X-rays. But there could be fluorescent substances, natural, tolerated by the human body that once ingested concentrate in the retina, making it possible.
Imagine what would be the strategic advantage of a secret society that can see through the thinner walls of American homes and know what people are doing.
If they were used as they claim for blindfolding during rituals, why the distance to the eye and why the oval shape of the black cover suggesting they once encased thick, low radius lenses?
