Roentgen's Discovery of X rays

Abstract

X Rays were discovered by Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen in the late evening of November 8, 1895, in his laboratory in the New Physical Institute of the University of Wurzburg, where he was Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute. He was fifty years of age at the time: so this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of his discovery and the centenary of his birth. To commemorate the man and his discovery, the learned societies of this country met together on November 8–10 of this year in meetings and demonstrations. Similar meetings were held in the large cities of many other countries and it is fitting that we in Birmingham should pay our tribute, for our representatives at the time of the discovery, namely, Dr. J. Hall Edwards and Dr. J. R. Ratcliffe, general practitioners in the City, were amongst the first to recognise the possibilities of the discovery and to put the rays to practical use. No one would have been more worthy or capable of giving this lecture than our late Principal, the late Sir Olive...