X-Rays 1895 – Beyond the Human Body

To test X-rays, Wihelm Röntgen placed his wife Anna Bertha's hand between radioactive material and a fluorescent plate. When Anna saw the X-ray image of her own hand taken by her husband, she cried out in horror, believing the rays to be an ominous sign of death. Within a month, however, Wilhelm Röntgen's X-rays had become one of the world's major talking points. 

Skeptics called them death rays that would destroy the human race. Enthusiastic dreamers, on the other hand, called them miracle rays that could allow blind people to see. For physicians, these X-rays ultimately marked a turning point in patient treatment.

On 8 November 1895, while experimenting with a cathode-ray tube, the German physicist Röntgen noticed that a plate glowed whether or not the tube was covered with heavy cardboard. Realizing that the tube was emitting invisible rays, he soon experimented with various materials such as wood, glass and rubber, and when he placed his hand in the path of the invisible rays, he saw a shadowy image of his bones. X-rays were later shown to consist of electromagnetic waves like light, but with higher energy and shorter wavelengths.

In 1914, X-ray stations were used on First World War battlefields to help diagnose wounded soldiers. 

Today, X-rays are used not only to show skeletal structures, but also for other purposes: 

• Visualizing arteries and veins through angiography, which involves injecting contrast agents into blood vessels
• Destroying certain types of cancer through radiation therapy
• Identifying lung and breast diseases
• Revealing bowel obstructions

In computed tomography (CT), a computer combines many X-ray images to create cross-sectional images and three-dimensional views.

In 1926, the American biologist Hermann Muller clearly and quantitatively demonstrated that X-rays could cause mutations in cells, drawing attention to the potential dangers of excessive X-ray exposure.

About the Article Image: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, his wife Anna Bertha Röntgen, and the first X-ray image ever taken: Anna Bertha's hand and the ring on it. 

Historical Figures Mentioned in the Article: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845–1923), Hermann Joseph Muller (1890–1967)

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