Blondlot announces N-rays

1903

The French physicist Prosper-René Blondlot reported a new form of radiation he called N-rays, and dozens of papers by other researchers confirmed them. Robert Wood visited the laboratory and secretly removed a prism essential to the apparatus; Blondlot's assistant continued to report seeing the rays. It is a case of self-deception rather than fraud, and became the standard example of observer bias. Not a hoax. Blondlot appears to have genuinely believed in N-rays; no deliberate deception was established. Included as the boundary case that shows how thin the line between hoax and error can be.