Wilhelm Roentgen, German Physicist

Wilhelm Konrad 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

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Barium Detected Detection Discovered Electromagnetic Enhancement Konrad Laureate Nobelist Platinocyanide Radiation Rays Recipient Roentgen Rontgen Wavelength Wurzburg X Ray X-ray Xray

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