Skip to main content

X-ray history

The X-rays were discovered in 1895 and from there they became a very revolutionary application in many branches of science, from astronomy to radiographs that we have not done so many times.the 120th anniversary of the X-rays knowing his inventor and the research that led him to such an important scientific advance.

Article index

Who invented the X-rays?

The inventor or, rather, the person who discovered the X-rays was Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen , a German physicist who was focused on the field of electromagnetics Nothing else to present his discovery, Rontgen's theory received great attention from critics and public, and was translated into French, English or Russian.

Although it is not a name as well known today as that of others you celebrate writers, the name of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen is written in gold letters in the medical field, where he has had and has and numerous applications.The importance of his discovery was such in his day that he was the first Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1901 .

But how did he really discover them? Was that what I was looking for or, like so many other inventions, arose almost by chance?

How were X-rays discovered?

The November 8, 1895 the physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen , was conducting experiments to analyze the violet fluorescence of the cathode rays , for which he used a device called Crookes tube .But an unexpected effect caught my attention: a subtle yellow-greenish glow on a cardboard with a solution of barium platinum-cyanide crystals.This prompted some small tests to see what was happening.

Rontgen began to move the solution away more and more, checking that the glow I had.It was a very penetrating radiation but invisible to the human eye.The experiments continued for several weeks to try to understand the properties of these rays, so far never studied, which led to a new discovery.When trying to make a photograph I check that the plates were veiled.

This new event led him to think Rontgen that the rays influenced the photographic emulsion, which triggered new tests.Soon I see that the rays crossed the matter and impressed their form in the photography .At the time he decided to experiment with the human body.His wife exposed her hand to the rays and placed it on the plate.They thus obtained the first x-ray of the human body (including her ring!), a advance that would later revolutionize medicine.

Rontgen decided or call his discovery "incognita rays", or "x-rays". His studies had a high impact on the scientific community, obtaining in 1901 the Nobel Prize of Physics .

X-ray applications

X-ray history

Most of us have thought about it,« How it would be nice to have X-rays to see Pepito or the neighbor of the third without clothes ".Do not deny it.At the moment there is no evidence that such an apparatus exists, and if there were we do not believe that it would last long in the market.But X-rays have other applications of much more relevance.

As we know, X-rays have given rise to specialties such as radiology , which allows you to see the inside of the human body to analyze the state of bones or organs.

This type of "technology" is also often used for reasons of security .For example, special security forces have X-ray equipment to see through certain materials, while in other places, such as airports , they are used to check if passengers carry something hidden.

X-ray history

However, X-rays may also have other uses which are not as well known among the middle population.For example, they are used to study fossils and wreckage from millions of years ago without damaging it.

Technological advances allow various radiologies to be made of objects consisting of a kind of transverse plates that, all joined together, would form the object itself in 3D.This technology, assisted by computers, is used, among other things, for the ham salting process .

Finally, another of its uses has to see with art and design; X-rays are also used to find out if a picture is authentic or to determine the purity of precious stones .

You can find much more information about X-rays in this History Channel documentary:

Images

Google

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jose Risueño Biography

José Risueño (Granada, 1665- id ., 1732) Spanish sculptor and painter.Follower of A.Cano, P.de Mena and D.de Mora, he worked in Granada, where he made the figures of the chapel of the Sacrament of the Carthusian monastery, the San Juan de Dios of the church of San Matías and the Crucified Christ of Sacromonte.It is famous for its polychrome baked clay figurines ( Penitent Magdalene ).

The history of the lottery in the world and in Spain

The history of the lottery in the world and in Spain, anecdotes and dates that will leave you truly surprised since Who could imagine that the lottery and the games to do have been part of our life for so many years? Article index Emergence of the lottery The oldest known data on the emergence of the lottery, take us to 205 and 187 BC , and the Han Chinese dynasty., it has come to prove that the Great Wall of China was built with money raised by the lottery.There is evidence that Keno was played, which consists in guessing that numbers contain prizes and that it still exists today. There is also evidence that the Romans distributed lottery tickets, with different prizes.However, not all prizes were especially d That is, for example, Emperor Heliogabalo preferred to distribute chickpeas, slaves, snakes...and even death sentences! For his part, in the Republic of Genoa, certain senators were chosen at random In France, the lottery came somewhat later, in 1776, and even the ...

Heinrich maier Biography

Heinrich Maier (Heidenheim, 1867-Berlin, 1933) German philosopher.He produced a "critical realism", along the lines of H.Driesch.He is the author, among other works, of Aristotle's syllogistics (1896-1900) and of The philosophy of reality (1926-1935).

Carolingian dynasty Biography

Carolingian Dynasty Family reigning between the middle of the 8th century and the beginning of the 10th century in practically all of Western Europe (except for the Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy and the British Isles).It gets its name from the two most prominent figures of the dynasty, Carlos Martel and Charlemagne.It was originally a Germanic noble family settled in Austrasia, in the area between the Meuse and the Rhine rivers; a first attempt to seize the Throne from the Merovingians in the mid-seventh century ended in failure, without the reprisals affecting the family patrimony.From now on, the family preferred to grow up under the Merovingian monarchy, whose decomposition left effective power in the hands of the mayordomos of the palaces of the different territories. Pepin II of Herstal (679-714) , steward of Austrasia, managed to seize the rule of the Frankish kingdom by defeating the steward of Neustria and Burgundy.His bastard son Carlos Martel (714-41) re-establis...

Edwin mcmillan Biography

Edwin McMillan (Edwin Mattison McMillan; Redondo Beach, 1907-El Cerrito, 1991) American nuclear physicist and chemist.Trained at the California Institute of Technology, McMillan received his doctorate from Princeton University in 1932.In 1946 he achieved a teaching position at the University of California, on the Berkeley campus. Edwin McMillan In the development of his studies on the fission of the atomic nucleus, he discovered neptunium, one of the decay products of the isotope 239 of uranium.In 1940, in collaboration with Philip H.Abelson, he succeeded in isolating this new element, the first belonging to the series of transurans in the periodic table, of particular importance in nuclear energy. During World War II, McMillan collaborated in the improvement of sonar and spy radars, and participated in the manufacture of the first atomic bomb.In 1945 he managed to overcome the theoretical limits of the speeds of accelerated particles in a cyclotron and, independently of the R...

Yongzheng or Yinchen Biography

Yongzheng or Yinchen (1678-1735) Chinese emperor, third of the Qing dynasty, born with the name of Yinchen.He ascended to the throne in 1723, succeeding his father, the Kangxi Emperor.Yongzheng's reign was characterized by the continuity with respect to his father's policy, improving the administration of the Empire through strict control of corruption and a fiscal reform, as well as by the consolidation of the absolute power of the sovereign that consolidated the foundations of the Manchu dynasty. The Yongzheng Emperor Son of one of the Kangxi court servants, Yinchen was not originally destined to inherit the Chinese throne, role that fell to Yinreng (1688-1755) or one of his brothers (at least fifteen of them aspired to the succession).However, Yinchen, a character as cunning as he is ambitious, took advantage of the ineptitude of the official heir to plot against him and get him to be separated and imprisoned, accused of conspiracy; He also got rid of the rest of his ...

François Mitterrand Biography

François Mitterrand (Jarnac, Charente, 1916-Paris, 1996) French socialist politician, president of the French republic between 1981 and 1995.Born into a middle-class Catholic family, he graduated in Law and Political Science in Paris.During World War II (1939-45) he was mobilized and taken prisoner by the Germans (1940); then he escaped and joined the collaborationist Vichy regime; from 1942 he was active in the Resistance, but without adhering directly to Charles De Gaulle.After his resignation, Mitterrand entered politics, being elected deputy by Nièvre in 1946, under a centrist label (only gradually would he evolve to the left). François Mitterrand Between 1947 and 1957 he held multiple positions in the changing ministerial combinations of the Fourth Republic: secretary of state for ex-combatants, secretary of State of Information, Undersecretary of the Presidency, Minister of Colonies, Minister of State, Minister delegated to the Council of Europe, Minister of the Interior a...

Joseph radetzky Biography

Joseph Radetzky (Joseph Wenzeslaus, count of Radetzky) Austrian military man (Trebnitz, Bohemia, 1766-Milan, 1858).Born into an old aristocratic family of the Habsburg Empire, he entered the army at a young age and fought in the wars against Turkey (1788-89) and against France (1792-1814).He played a prominent role in the final offensive of the European allies against Napoleon, designing the strategy with which they won at the Battle of Leipzig (1813). After the war, the Congress of Vienna assigned to Austria the Italian territories around Venice and Milan, as well as a right of general control over Italy (1815).Radetzky was placed in command of the Austrian troops in Italy, with the task of maintaining the order established in the peninsula (1831).In 1836 he was appointed Marshal.The nationalist and liberal revolutions of 1848, whose main enemy was the Austrian occupier, forced him to withdraw with his troops. However, it did not take long to regain the initiative, defeating Ca...

Arthur Neville Chamberlain Biography

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (Birmingham, 1869-Heckfield, 1940) British Conservative politician who was Prime Minister between 1937 and 1940.He was the son of Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), leader of the Liberals « unionists' who joined the Conservative Party and one of the country's most influential politicians in the late 19th century; his half-brother Joseph Austen Chamberlain (1863-1937) also devoted himself to politics, becoming president of the House of Commons, minister on multiple occasions and fleeting head of the Conservative Party. Neville Chamberlain Neville Chamberlain, on the other hand, turned into politics belatedly, having gone into business.He was elected mayor of Birmingham in 1915 (his father had already distinguished himself in that position in 1873-1876).His political prestige was forged at the head of the Ministry of Health (1924-1929); the social reform that he introduced in the British health system consolidated the new populist image of the Conse...