BMJ 1995;310:614-615 (11 March)

Editorials

100 years of x rays

They turned medicine inside out

This year marks the centenary of the discovery of x rays by Wilhelm Rontgen. On 8 November 1895 Rontgen observed what led to a revolutionary diagnostic procedure in medicine: each time he passed a high electric voltage through a covered vacuum tube in a darkened room a barium platinocyanide screen lying nearby emitted a mysterious light or fluorescence. Rontgen realised that the invisible rays that were producing the fluorescence had not previously been described, and he called them x rays.1 2 3

Rontgen did not report his discovery immediately but spent the following seven weeks in his laboratory, meticulously performing experiments and recording his observations. An x ray picture of his wife's hand convinced him of the potential role of the new ray, and in December he presented a manuscript entitled "Eine neue Art von Strahlen" (On a new kind of rays) to the secretary of the . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

100 years of x rays
John Caroe
BMJ 1995 311: 688-689. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Caroe, J. (1995). 100 years of x rays. BMJ 311: 688b-689 [Full text]  
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