Roentgen's X-Ray Machine, 19th Century

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923), German experimental physicist and discoverer of X-rays. While using a discharge tube (in which an electric discharge is passed through a gas at low pressure) in a darkened room, Roentgen noticed that a card coated with barium platinocyanide glowed when the tube was switched on. The effect was not blocked by an intervening wall, or even a thin sheet of metal. Roentgen termed this newly discovered phenomenon X-ray radiation, and suggested that it consisted of electromagnetic rays with a shorter wavelength than light. He was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901. Drawing of the X-ray machine used by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen to produce images of the hand. The generator (B) supplied a high voltage to the cathode ray tube (Crookes tube) at upper right (T). This tube produced X-rays which left an image of the hand on a covered, photographic plate (C)

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Barium Cathode Crookes Detected Detection Diagnostic Discovered Electromagnetic Imaging Invasive Konrad Laureate Nobelist Non Invasive Non-invasive Platinocyanide Procedure Radiation Radiogram Radiography Radiology Rays Recipient Roentgen Rontgen Scan Schematic Tomogram Tomography Wavelength Wurzburg X Ray X-ray Xray

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