One Hundred Years of Medical Radiology

In 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was the professor and head of the department of physics at the Julius-Maximillan University at Wurzburg in Germany. On the 8 November of that year, he was working with cathode rays using evacuated glass bulbs. Rontgen noted that when a current was passed across the bulb, a barium platinocyanide screen was seen to fluoresce. He at once realised the significance of this observation. Simultaneously he noted the effect of the new phenomena on photographic plates. On the 28th of December 1895, his manuscript "On a New Kind of Ray" outlining the essential features of X-rays was submitted to the Wurzburg Physical Medical Institute. The new discovery aroused considerable interest. The description of the ability to see through the body was greeted by many with considerable incredulity and early descriptions made pains to reassure the public that this was indeed a serious discovery by a respected scientist. Rontgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize for physics in 1901.