Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen

von W.C. Röntgen
(Vorläufige Mittheilung)

1. Lässt man durch eine Hittorf'sche Vacuumröhre, oder einen genügend evacuierten Lenard'schen, Crooke'schen oder ähnlichen Apparat die Entladungen eines grösseren Ruhmkorff's gehen, und bedeckt die Röhre mit einem ziemlich eng anliegendem Mantel aus dünnen schwarzem Carton, so sieht man in dem vollständig verdunkelten Zimmer einen in die Nähe des Apparates gebrachten, mit Bariumplatincyanür angestrichenen Papierschirm bei jeder Entladung hell aufleuchten, flueresciren, gleichgültig ob die an gestrichene oder die andere Seite des Schirmes dem Entladungs apparat zugewendet ist. Die Fluerescenz ist noch in 2 m Entfernung vom Apparat bemerkbar.

Man überzeugt sich leicht, dass die Ursache der Fluerescenz vom Innern der Entladungsapparatur und von Keiner anderen Stelle der Leitung ausgeht.

This rather formal, turn-of-the-century German may be translated:-

Concerning a New Kind of Rays

by W.C. Röntgen
(Preliminary Communication)

1. Upon passing the discharge of a large Rumkorff (coil) through a Hittorf tube or a sufficiently evacuated Lennard, Crookes or similar apparatus, the tube being equipped with a properly tight fitting cover made of thin black card, then in a completely darkened room one sees with every discharge, brightly emitted light, a fluorescing, from a paper screen coated with barium platinocyanide placed in the proximity of the apparatus, regardless of whether it is the coated (side) or the other side of the screen which faces it. Fluorescence is observable up to 2m away from the apparatus.

It is easily shown that the cause of the fluorescence originates from inside the discharge apparatus and from no other part of the conductors.

A Crookes Tube

In addition to the obvious thoughts on what the X-ray dose must have been to produce a good response in a simple detector up to 2 metres away from the source (Röntgen himself reported that the effect could be seen with the screen in the next room, yet he lived longer than many of the early radiochemists), there is also another interesting aspect. The paper was written in a provincial university at holiday time: nevertheless the results were published within days and within an equally short order (two or three weeks) confirmatory experiments had been performed as far afield as Vienna, Karlsruhe and London. So much for fast track review and high speed publication in these days of the Internet!

Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901, but although prepared to accept scientific acclaim, he refused to profit commercially from his discovery and never patented any aspect of X-Ray production, even though X-Rays were quickly exploited in many ways. Sadly he became, like many others, a victim of the hyperinflation that destroyed the German economy in the 1920's and died in poverty.

"Beach Idyll à la Röntgen"

The "New Kind of Rays" quickly captured not only scientific but also the public imagination, as this German popular postcard printed at the turn of the century shows. The rays were credited with many extraordinary powers, including the ability to transmute base metals into gold and to imprint diagrams onto students minds to aid learning!

And even further afield....

Recently I learned that news of the discovery had travelled much further, and surely more remakably.
In October 1896 the business manufacturing educational physics and chemistry instruments begun by Genzo Shimadzu recorded their first X-ray photographs in Kyoto, Japan, a mere 10 months after Röntgen's announcement (remember than a fast ship would take two months or so the get there, though the Electric Telegraph would of course be faster...)

Fame at last!

"A joint IUPAC-IUPAP Working Party (JWP) has confirmed the discovery of element number 111. In accord with IUPAC procedures, the discoverers have proposed a name and symbol for the element. The Inorganic Chemistry Division Committee now recommends this proposal for acceptance. The proposed name is roentgenium with symbol Rg."

This is the rather terse official statement at the head of the "draft for public comment" reporting confirmation of the discovery of the new element and seeking to name it (you can have your say, up to 31st October 2004!)

Acknowledgements

The paper (more precisely a copy) was brought to the writer's attention in 1994 by Prof Horst Ebel (T.U. Vienna), to whom (and to the Institute of Physics of the University) grateful thanks for permission to publish in this form.
The translation from the hand written to the printed German was by Dr Hans Schmiedel.
The English and the commentary are the fault of the writer alone.

Picture Credits

Röntgen: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Crookes Tube: Crown Copyright, Science Museum, London.
"Strand Idyll" J.L Charmet

Sources

There is a biography by O.Glasser (new ed. 1958) and a delightful insight in E. Segrè's book "From Quarks to X-Rays" (W.H. Freeman, San Francsico, 1980, ISBN 0-7167-1147-8) This also contains a translation (slightly different) of the Würzburg paper as published in Nature, (1896) 53, p 274, and an even more interesting letter (February 1896) from Röntgen to a friend, offering sample photographs and demonstration equipment.

A perhaps more accesible account is in "Scientists and Inventors" (A. Feldman & P. Ford) ISBN 1-870630-23 S (Cave, London, 1989)

There's an interesting difference in the "handedness" of Röntgen's photo between these two sources and also the famous "first" X-ray photographs of the hand are different!