November 8 - X-Rays Are Observed for the First Time

This Day in History: 8 November 2020

 

8 November 1895

 

125 years ago, today, Germany scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen became the first person to observe X-rays, a significant scientific advancement that benefitted a variety of fields, especially medicine, by making the invisible visible. His discovery occurred accidentally in his lab in Wurzburg, Germany, where he was testing if cathode rays could pass through glass when he noticed a glow coming from a nearby chemically coated screen. He dubbed the rays that caused this glow 'X-rays' because of their unknown nature. This was labelled as a medical miracle and X-rays soon became an important diagnostic tool in medicine.

 

Doctors could now see inside the human body for the first time without surgery, and in 1897, X-rays were used on a military battlefield for the first time, during the Balkan War, to find bullets and broken bones inside patients. Scientists realised the benefits of X-rays but were slow to comprehend their harmful effects. It was though initially they were as harmless as light, but within several years, burns and skin damage was reported after exposure to X-rays. Thomas Edison's assistant, Clarence Dally, died of skin cancer after working extensively with X-rays, causing scientists to begin taking the risks of radiation more seriously.

 

Want to find out more about the history of X-rays? Click here for more information, or here for more about Wilhelm Röntgen.