When Was X-ray Discovered?
X-rays were discovered for the first time in 1895 by a German physicist named Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. It was an accidental discovery. X-rays are also known as ‘Röntgen radiation’ and they fall into two categories: soft x-rays (lower energy) and hard x-rays (more powerful).
Once, Röntgen was working on cathode ray tubes in his laboratory. He took out all the air from the tubes and created a high electric potential across the tubes. This caused an electric current to pass through the tubes. The tubes produced a fluorescent glow. He shielded the tube with a piece of black paper and he witnessed a green color light coming out of it He realized he had witnessed a previously unknown ‘invisible light’. He conducted more experiments and studied the nature of the newly discovered rays. He named them ‘X-rays’, ‘x’ in mathematics stands for an unknown quantity.
Röntgen also found that the x-rays could pass through most of the objects including human tissues. Experiments confirmed that ‘x-ray’ could not penetrate human bones. The discovery quickly spread throughout the world because cathode-ray tubes were common in those days. Scientists repeated Röntgen’s experiments and discovered the new rays could be utilized in the medical field; thus x-ray machines were born. X-rays are also used at airport security terminals to inspect the interiors of luggage. Other applications of X-rays include astronomy, industrial radiography, fine art photography etc.
