Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected
electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today that was known as X-rays or Röntgen
rays, an achievement that earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
In honour of his accomplishments, in 2004 the International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable
isotopes, after him.
Biography In 1865, he tried to attend the University
of Utrecht without having the necessary credentials required for a regular student.
Upon hearing that he could enter the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, he passed
its examinations, and began studies there as a student of mechanical engineering.
In 1869, he graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich; once there, he became
a favorite student of Professor August Kundt, whom he followed to the University of Strassburg
in 1873.
Career In 1874 Röntgen became a lecturer at the
University of Strassburg.
In 1875 he became a professor at the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim, Württemberg.
He returned to Strassburg as a professor of physics in 1876, and in 1879, he was appointed
to the chair of physics at the University of Giessen.
In 1888, he obtained the physics chair at the University of Würzburg, and in 1900 at
the University of Munich, by special request of the Bavarian government.
Röntgen had family in Iowa in the United States and at one time planned to emigrate.
Although he accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York City and had actually
purchased transatlantic tickets, the outbreak of World War I changed his plans and he remained
in Munich for the rest of his career.
During 1895 Röntgen was investigating the external effects from the various types of
vacuum tube equipment — apparatuses from Heinrich Hertz, Johann Hittorf, William Crookes,
Nikola Tesla and Philipp von Lenard — when an electrical discharge is passed through
them.
In early November, he was repeating an experiment with one of Lenard's tubes in which a thin
aluminium window had been added to permit the cathode rays to exit the tube but a cardboard
covering was added to protect the aluminium from damage by the strong electrostatic field
that is necessary to produce the cathode rays.
He knew the cardboard covering prevented light from escaping, yet Röntgen observed that
the invisible cathode rays caused a fluorescent effect on a small cardboard screen painted
with barium platinocyanide when it was placed close to the aluminium window.
It occurred to Röntgen that the Hittorf-Crookes tube, which had a much thicker glass wall
than the Lenard tube, might also cause this fluorescent effect.
In the late afternoon of 8 November 1895, Röntgen was determined to test his idea.
He carefully constructed a black cardboard covering similar to the one he had used on
the Lenard tube.
He covered the Hittorf-Crookes tube with the cardboard and attached electrodes to a Ruhmkorff
coil to generate an electrostatic charge.
Before setting up the barium platinocyanide screen to test his idea, Röntgen darkened
the room to test the opacity of his cardboard cover.
As he passed the Ruhmkorff coil charge through the tube, he determined that the cover was
light-tight and turned to prepare the next step of the experiment.
It was at this point that Röntgen noticed a faint shimmering from a bench a few feet
away from the tube.
To be sure, he tried several more discharges and saw the same shimmering each time.
Striking a match, he discovered the shimmering had come from the location of the barium platinocyanide
screen he had been intending to use next.
Röntgen speculated that a new kind of ray might be responsible.
8 November was a Friday, so he took advantage of the weekend to repeat his experiments and
make his first notes.
In the following weeks he ate and slept in his laboratory as he investigated many properties
of the new rays he temporarily termed "X-rays", using the mathematical designation for something
unknown.
The new rays came to bear his name in many languages as "Röntgen Rays".
Nearly two weeks after his discovery, he took the very first picture using X-rays of his
wife Anna Bertha's hand.
When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my death!"
At one point while he was investigating the ability of various materials to stop the rays,
Röntgen brought a small piece of lead into position while a discharge was occurring.
Röntgen thus saw the first radiographic image, his own flickering ghostly skeleton on the
barium platinocyanide screen.
He later reported that it was at this point that he determined to continue his experiments
in secrecy, because he feared for his professional reputation if his observations were in error.
Röntgen's original paper, "On A New Kind Of Rays", was published on 28 December 1895.
On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported Röntgen's discovery of a new type of radiation.
Röntgen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Würzburg
after his discovery.
He published a total of three papers on X-rays between 1895 and 1897.
Today, Röntgen is considered the father of diagnostic radiology, the medical speciality
which uses imaging to diagnose disease.
A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda,
Maryland.
Personal life
Röntgen was married to Anna Bertha Ludwig and had one child, Josephine Bertha Ludwig.
Adopted at age 6, in 1887, she was the daughter of Anna's brother.
Röntgen died on 10 February 1923 from carcinoma of the intestine.
It is not believed his carcinoma was a result of his work with ionizing radiation because
of the brief time he spent on those investigations, and because he was one of the few pioneers
in the field who used protective lead shields routinely.
Röntgen did not take patents out on his discoveries, and donated the money for his Nobel prize
to the University of Würzburg.
With the inflation following World War I, Röntgen fell into bankruptcy later in life,
spending his final years at his country home at Weilheim, near Munich.
In keeping with his will, all his personal and scientific correspondence were destroyed
upon his death.
Honors and awards In 1901 Röntgen was awarded the very first
Nobel Prize in Physics.
The award was officially "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered
by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him".
Röntgen donated the monetary reward from his Nobel Prize to his university.
Like Pierre Curie, Röntgen refused to take out patents related to his discovery, as he
wanted mankind as a whole to benefit from practical applications of the same.
Rumford Medal Matteucci Medal
Elliott Cresson Medal Nobel Prize for Physics
In November 2004 IUPAC named element number 111 roentgenium in his honour.
IUPAP adopted the name in November 2011.
Legacy Today, in Remscheid-Lennep, 40 kilometres
east of Düsseldorf, the house in which Roentgen was born in 1845 is the Deutsches Röntgen-Museum.
See also German inventors and discoverers
References
External links Biography at the official Nobel site
Annotated bibliography for Wilhelm Rontgen from the Alsos Digital Library
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Biography The Cathode Ray Tube site
First X-ray Photogram The American Roentgen Ray Society
Deutsches Röntgen-Museum WC Roentgen – Medcyclopedia
Röntgen Rays: Memoirs by Röntgen, Stokes, and J.J.
Thomson Some places and memories related to Wilhelm
Conrad Roentgen on Himetop – The History of Medicine Topographical Database
The New Marvel in Photography, an article on and interview with Röntgen, in McClure's
magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, April, 1896, from Project Gutenberg
Wilhelm Röntgen at Find a Grave