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

Edouard Manet Biography

Édouard Manet (Paris, 1832-id., 1883) French painter and printmaker.Son of an important civil servant of the Ministry of Justice, Édouard Manet was a mediocre student interested only in drawing.Faced with paternal resistance to starting an artistic career, he tried unsuccessfully to enter the Naval Academy until, after a second failed attempt, his family reluctantly agreed to finance his artistic studies, which began in 1850 in the workshop of the classical painter Thomas Couture. Édouard Manet After six years of apprenticeship, Édouard Manet established himself in his own studio.In those early days he established a relationship with artists and writers such as Henri Fantin-Latour, Edgar Degas and Charles Baudelaire.At the beginning of 1860 some of his works began to be recognized, which deserved, among others, the warm reception of the critic and writer Théophile Gautier. In his production at the end of the 1870s he accentuated the naturalism of his subject matter, to give th...

José Sarmiento and Valladares Biography

José Sarmiento y Valladares (17th-18th centuries) Spanish colonial administrator.He was viceroy of New Spain (1696-1701), a position he left after the death of Carlos II and the change of dynasty.During his tenure, he managed to reactivate mining activity, suspended for lack of quicksilver, and trade in the colony.He held the titles of Count of Moctezuma and Tula.

Don Omar Biography

Don Omar (Stage name of William Omar Landrón, Puerto Rico, 1978) Puerto Rican singer and songwriter.Educated in Villa Palmeras, an underprivileged sector of Puerto Rico, Don Omar began to compose his first songs and poems at the age of twelve; Soon he was strongly attracted to reggaeton , a musical genre that emerged in Puerto Rico in the early 90's. His musical beginnings are linked to the church, to which he was linked as a pastor.For four years he was pastor at the Church of the Restoration in Christ in Bayamón, which he left due to a sentimental disappointment (his well-known theme Although you left includes this episode from his biography).During this period he was part of several groups that sang in religious celebrations. Don Omar In 2002 Don Omar's career took a turn when Héctor El Bambino , a famous member of the duo Héctor y Tito , heard him and decided to sponsor him as a music producer.It was then that Landrón adopted the name Don Omar and began to par...

Joseph plateau Biography

Joseph Plateau (Brussels, 1801-Ghent, 1883) Belgian physicist.Professor at the University of Ghent, he carried out research work on static and fluid dynamics phenomena.He devised a strobe system for the study of vibratory movements.

Domingo Fernández Navarrete Biography

Domingo Fernández Navarrete (Peñafiel, 1610-Santo Domingo, 1698) Spanish theologian and missionary.Dominico (1630), missionary in the Philippines (1646) and prefect of the Dominican missions in China (1664), took part in the Canton conference on Chinese rites (1668), in which he opposed the Jesuits.At his death, he was bishop of Santo Domingo.He wrote about the Chinese missions and religious writings in the Chinese language.

Harry Lloyd Hopkins Biography

Harry Lloyd Hopkins (Sioux City, 1890-New York, 1946) American politician.He was a Roosevelt collaborator from his time as governor of New York.During his presidency he was one of the promoters of economic recovery and its representative in Europe during World War II.

Edouard Balladur Biography

Édouard Balladur (Smyrna, 1929) French politician.Born in Smyrna into a family of bankers of Armenian origin, Édouard Balladur studied law at the University of Aix-en-Provence and graduated from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. His political career began in the early 1960s.Technical adviser in Pompidou's cabinet from 1966 to 1968, the Prime Minister entrusted him with relations with the unions.Between 1969 and 1974 he was Secretary General to President Pompidou.Considered the shadow mastermind of that government, Balladur served as de facto president during Pompidou's long agony. After his death, he rejected the post of ambassador to the Vatican proposed by Valery Giscard d'Estaing and went on to work for a private company.In 1977 he was appointed president-director of General de Servicios Informáticos and in 1980, president of the European Accumulator Company.In 1984 he was appointed Councilor of State, and in the legislative elections of March 16, 198...

Hebraeus Bar Biography

Bar Hebraeus (Abú-l-Faray ibn al-Ibri, called Bar Hebraeus; Melitene, 1226-Maraga, 1286) Syrian theologian.The author of a Syrian chronicle, which he later translated into Arabic, he was a monk in Antioch, bishop of Aleppo, and head of the eastern Jacobite community.