Invention Of X-Ray Photography

X-ray photography was such a huge step forward for medical diagnosis what Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen, who invented the technique in 1895, was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics when the prizes were inaugurated in 1901.

X-rays were not an invention, they were a discovery. This form of radiation already existed in nature before it was discovered by Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen (Germany) in 1895 - what Roentgen invented was X-ray photography, a.k.a. radiography, a practical application for his discovery. Late in 1895, Roentgen, then Professor of Physics at the University if Wurzburg, Germany, was investigating the known phenomenon of cathode rays by passing electricity through various gases. On the evening of 8 November he noticed that a piece of paper coated with a fluorescent chemical glowed even a when a piece of cardboard physically separated the paper from the source of the rays. The paper continued to glow when Roentgen took it into the next room, and he realized he had discovered a new form of radiation.

Roentgen called his discovery X-rays because at that stage he did not know what they were, X being the scientific symbol for an unknown factor. He continued his experiments for another month, and discovered that not only would the rays pass through solids, but a photographic plate would capture an image of

whatever lay between the source of the rays and the plate. On 22 December he took the now-famous X-ray of his wife's hand, showing her wedding ring and the bones of her fingers, and on 28 December he presented his findings to the Wurzburg Physico-Medical Society in a paper entitled "On a New Kind of Rays".

News of Roentgen's discovery soon spread around the world, revolutionizing medical diagnosis. Before this, the best means of working out what was happening inside the body had been manipulation ('tell me where it hurts'), auscultation (listening to the chest) and percussion (tapping the body to ascertain the health of the organs). Roentgen's discovery, and the invention of radiography, was such a profound step forward that it was little surprise when in 1901 he was awarded the inaugural Nobel Prize for Physics.

Source - The Book Of Inventions by Ian Harrison