Roentgens X-ray Machine, 19th Century

by Science Source

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Roentgens X-ray Machine, 19th Century

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Science Source

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Photograph - Photograph

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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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March 14th, 2013

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