Barium Platinocyanide Research Articles

Ernest Rutherford’s ambitions

One of the pioneers of radioactivity research, Rutherford feared his work would be overlooked—and changed his publishing strategies to make sure it wasn’t.

Radiation-induced thyroid cancer: The Chicago experience

IN 1901 KARL WILHELM ROENTGEN, a physics professor at Wurzburg, Germany, received the first Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of x-rays in experiments, which began 6 years earlier in 1895. The invisible cathode rays generated were found to cause a fluorescence on a barium platinocyanide screen and, surprisingly, to outline the bones of his wife’s hand on this photographic film (Fig 1). By 1896, radiographs were being taken for clinical purposes and their diagnostic possibilities were quickly exploited. Bone films, chest x-rays, and even barium studies of the gastrointestinal tract were quickly tried. Roentgen found that prolonged exposure to x-rays produced burns and ulcerations of the skin, hair loss, and dermatitis. These effects were turned into therapy to burn off moles and to treat acne, hemangiomas, skin tuberculosis, and many other benign skin lesions. At about the same time (1891), Maria Sklodowska left Warsaw to study at the Sorbonne. She married fellow scientist Pierre Curie. Her work on uranium led to the discovery of polonium and radium, a substance 900 times more radioactive than uranium. Uranium, polonium, and radium released rays like x-rays that penetrated matter. Madame Curie and a colleague accidentally burned themselves when carrying vials of radium in their pockets. In 1901, Pierre Curie did so purposely by strapping some radium to his arm. By 1904, it was demonstrated that radium rays destroyed

X-Rays Surgical Revolution

Wilhelm Roentgen (1845–1923) created a surgical revolution with the discovery of the X-rays in late 1895 and the subsequent introduction of this technique for the management of surgical patients. No other physician or scientist had ever imagined such a powerful and worthwhile discovery. Other scientists paved the way for Roentgen to approach the use of these new X-rays for medical purposes. In this way, initially, and prior to Roentgen, Thompson, Hertz, and Lenard applied themselves to the early developments of this technology. They made good advances but never reached the clearly defined understanding brought about by Roentgen. The use of a Crookes tube, a barium platinocyanide screen, with fluorescent light and the generation of energy to propagate the cathode rays were the necessary elements for the conception of an X-ray picture. On November 8, 1895, Roentgen began his experiments on X-ray technology when he found that some kind of rays were being produced by the glass of the tube opposite to the cathode. The development of a photograph successfully completed this early imaging process. After six intense weeks of research, on December 22, he obtained a photograph of the hand of his wife, the first X-ray ever made. This would be a major contribution to the world of medicine and surgery.

A HISTORY OF RADIATION DETECTION INSTRUMENTATION

A review is presented of the history of radiation detection instrumentation. Specific radiation detection systems that are discussed include the human senses, photography, calorimetry, color dosimetry, ion chambers, electrometers, electroscopes, proportional counters, Geiger Mueller counters, scalers and rate meters, barium platinocyanide, scintillation counters, semiconductor detectors, radiophotoluminescent dosimeters, thermoluminescent dosimeters, optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters, direct ion storage, electrets, cloud chambers, bubble chambers, and bubble dosimeters. Given the broad scope of this review, the coverage is limited to a few key events in the development of a given detection system and some relevant operating principles. The occasional anecdote is included for interest.

A history of radiation detection instrumentation.

A review is presented of the history of radiation detection instrumentation. Specific radiation detection systems that are discussed include the human senses, photography, calorimetry, color dosimetry, ion chambers, electrometers, electroscopes, proportional counters, Geiger Mueller counters, scalers and rate meters, barium platinocyanide, scintillation counters, semiconductor detectors, radiophotoluminescent dosimeters, thermoluminescent dosimeters, optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters, direct ion storage, electrets, cloud chambers, bubble chambers, and bubble dosimeters. Given the broad scope of this review, the coverage is limited to a few key events in the development of a given detection system and some relevant operating principles. The occasional anecdote is included for interest.

Kevles, B.H.) [Book review

The book examines the discovery of X-rays in the late 1800's and its subsequent use in the medical field. Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895 fits all the myths of scientific discovery. A dedicated scientist, he noticed an unusual glow from a cardboard screen coated with barium platinocyanide, a fluorescent material, on which one of his students had traced the letter “A.” For the next seven weeks, Roentgen practically lived in his laboratory, producing finally a report of his research, “On a New Kind of Rays.” He sent copies of the report, including radiographs of Frau Roentgen’s hand with her wedding ring encircling the bone, to some of the leading physicists of the day. On 5 January 1896 a news story appeared with the radiograph. Discusses the use of X-ray technology in the past as well as up to the present time. Also explores the implications for the development of biomedical imaging equipment and technologies. These later technologies are immensely valuable in medicine. The author has done an excellent and engaging job of combining scientific, engineering, and social history. The author clearly shows how new technology is not neutral but forces us to rethink and reweave the social fabric of our lives in many unexpected ways.

One Hundred Years of X-rays

We sometimeshear of seminal contributions to medical science, but nearly all of them pale when compared with that of physicist Wilhelm Konrad Rontgen. In a darkened laboratory on the evening of November 8, 1895, he chanced to notice that a sheet of paper treated with crystals of barium platinocyanide, which he had failed to store following an earlier experiment, glowed when exposed to a cathode tube. The closer the paper was to the tube, the brighter the glow. He also observed that the glow persisted even if he placed a thick book between the tube and the paper. In a later experiment he interposed his hand between the tube and a photographic plate and was surprised to find not an outline of his hand but rather an image of the bones of his hand and a silhouette of his wedding ring. Thus had Rontgen made the greatest technical innovation

100 years of x rays.

This year marks the centenary of the discovery of x rays by Wilhelm Rontgen. On 8 November 1895 Rontgen observed what led to a revolutionary diagnostic procedure in medicine: each time he passed a high electric voltage through a covered vacuum tube in a darkened room a barium platinocyanide screen lying nearby emitted a mysterious light or fluorescence. Rontgen realised that the invisible rays that were producing the fluorescence had not previously been described, and he called them x rays.1 2 3 Rontgen did not report his discovery immediately but spent the following seven weeks in his laboratory, meticulously performing experiments and recording his observations. An x ray picture of his wife's hand convinced him of the potential role of the new ray, and in December he presented a …

A note on Roentgen's X-ray absorption measurements in 1895.

Among the many observations made by Roentgen in his first paper, the most important and revolutionary for medicine were those on the transmission of X rays through normally opaque materials, notably through tissues of the body. In a single sentence he founded the science of radiology: “If one holds the hand between the discharge apparatus and the screen, one sees the dark shadows of the bones within the much fainter shadow picture of the hand itself” (Roentgen, 1895). Further absorption experiments were made by Roentgen as well as, in particular, measurements on transmission through metal sheets. In Section 5 of his first paper, Roentgen wrote: “Platinum, lead, zinc and aluminium were rolled out in sheets of such thickness that all appeared nearly equally transparent”, the detector being his barium platinocyanide fluorescent screen. He measured the thickness of the sheets and gave the values as in the left-hand part of Table I, which reproduces the table from Roentgen's paper. Besides the thicknesses in m...

Alterations in the manuscript of Röntgen's publication “Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen” (1895)

Reading F. Freund's article “Lenard's share in the discovery of X-rays” in the 1946 issue of your Journal, I was struck by a passage that opposes Röntgen's statement that he had made his discovery when experimenting with a Hittorf tube. The passage reads: “…it can be reasonably assumed that he [Röntgen] experimented with a Lenard tube, when on November 8, 1895, a barium platinocyanide screen was lying at a distance beyond the range of cathode rays and started to fluoresce. This assumption can be confirmed by Rontgen's (1895) original manuscript ‘A New Kind of Rays’. He writes: ‘… and covered the Lenard apparatus with a tightly-fitting coat of thin cardboard…’, but crossed ‘Lenard apparatus’ out and wrote instead ‘the tube’…”

Physics in Medical Radiology

Medical radiology is the branch of medicine concerned with the application of ionizing radiation in diagnosis and therapy. In November 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, Professor of Physics in the University of Würzburg in Bavaria, discovered x rays; the act of discovery involved at a very early stage the visualization of the bones of his own hands, and of his wife's, on a fluorescent screen – a glass plate coated with barium platinocyanide.

On a new kind of rays.

1. A discharge from a large induction coil is passed through a Hittor's vacuum tube, or through a well-exhausted Crookes' or Lenard's tube. The tube is surrounded by a fairly close-fitting shield of black paper; it is then possible to see, in a completely darkened room, that paper covered on one side with barium platinocyanide lights up with brilliant fluorescence when brought into the neighborhood of the tube, whether the painted side or the other be turned towards the tube. The fluorescence is still visible at two metres distance. It is easy to show that the origin of the fluorescence lies within the vacuum tube. 2. It is seen, therefore, that some agent is capable of penetrating black cardboard which is quite opaque to ultra-violet light, sunlight or arc-light. It is therefore of interest to investigate how far other bodies can be penetrated by the same agent. It is readily shown that all bodies possess this same transparency, but in very varying degrees. For example, paper is very transparent; the flu...

A colorimetric dosimeter for qualitative measurement of penetrating radiations.

Shortly after the discovery of natural radioactivity by the Curies and Beequerel and of x-rays by Roentgen (1), during the latter part of the nineteenth century, the problem of radiation measurement arose. The first dosimeters depended upon the fluorescence of the platinocyanide of barium in the presence of roentgen or gamma radiation (2). This material was known to change from its normal green color to orange and then to various shades of brown following irradiation. Barium platinocyanide was the primary chemical ingredient of pastilles, developed by several investigators. The main disadvantage of these pastilles is that the color quickly reverts to the original green during exposure to light (2). Also, the color standards in the comparator charts gradually fade and contribute to inaccurate measurements. Freund (3), in 1904, utilized the effect of roentgen radiation on various iodine compounds. A mixture of iodoform and chloroform was found to be sensitive to irradiation (and was used in dosimetry), but ...

The Roentgen Ray: Its Past and Future

Few events have had a more profound influence on the practice of medicine than the discovery of the roentgen ray, the fiftieth anniversary of which we are celebrating this year. Almost from the day that Roentgen made his dramatic announcement to the world, physicians and physicists everywhere began work on the development of equipment to utilize this new radiation in the diagnostic and therapeutic fields of medicine. The events which culminated in Roentgen's discovery on November 8, 1895, extend back to the Golden Age of Greece when observations were made of electric phenomena. However, from this time until the 17th Century this knowledge lay buried and it was only in 1600, when Gilbert in England began the performance of a long and brilliant series of experiments, that the science of electricity was placed upon a firm foundation. Shortly thereafter, von Guericke began the study of electrical conduction through gases. These researches were continued through the 18th Century by Hawksbee, Dufay, Nollet, and Morgan. The equipment used in the experiments of two of these workers, Hawksbee and Morgan, had the potentiality of producing roentgen rays; indeed, in 1785, Morgan, it is generally assumed, produced such radiation, although its existence was unknown to him. During the 19th Century, the work of Faraday, Maxwell, Hertz, Hittorf, Crookes, and Lenard, to mention only a few, added still further to the knowledge of electrical conduction through gases. It was this research which prompted Roentgen to begin his experiments (Figs. 1 and 2). It is difficult to say whether Roentgen's discovery of the radiation which now bears his name and which he originally referred to as X-rays, was the result of deliberate research or of mere chance. There is, however, abundant evidence that his findings were anticipated. It is known, for instance, that his final experiments were conducted in total darkness with a Crookes' tube that was covered with black cardboard to prevent the escape of visible light produced by the gaseous discharge within the tube. Furthermore, there was also present near the tube a small piece of cardboard impregnated with barium platino-cyanide which would only fluoresce when impinged upon by the radiation of wave lengths

On a New Kind of Rays

1. A discharge from a large induction coil is passed through a Hittor's vacuum tube, or through a well-exhausted Crookes' or Lenard's tube. The tube is surrounded by a fairly close-fitting shield of black paper; it is then possible to see, in a completely darkened room, that paper covered on one side with barium platinocyanide lights up with brilliant fluorescence when brought into the neighborhood of the tube, whether the painted side or the other be turned towards the tube. The fluorescence is still visible at two metres distance. It is easy to show that the origin of the fluorescence lies within the vacuum tube. 2. It is seen, therefore, that some agent is capable of penetrating black cardboard which is quite opaque to ultra-violet light, sunlight or arc-light. It is therefore of interest to investigate how far other bodies can be penetrated by the same agent. It is readily shown that all bodies possess this same transparency, but in very varying degrees. For example, paper is very transparent; the flu...

What Kind of Tube did Röntgen use When He Discovered the X-ray?

I FEEL that we should not let this great meeting at which we heard so many excellent reports on the use of the roentgen rays go by without calling attention to the fact that we celebrate this year, the fortieth anniversay of the discovery of the x-ray or roentgen ray. Forty years have passed since Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, Professor of Physics at the University of Wurzburg, saw a strange phenomenon—the bright fluorescence of some barium platinocyanide crystals near an excited evacuated tube. He pursued the study of this effect in a most masterly and thorough manner, and discovered it to be due to a “new kind of rays,” which he called the “x-rays.” Many stories and fables have been woven around this famous discovery, some of which I have attempted to unravel in my book on the life of Rontgen (1). Even now, forty years later, discussions about the details of the discovery continue. Only recently, a discussion was again begun about the type of tube which Rontgen used when he made the discovery. Several article...

A New Fluorescent Screen for Visual Examinations

Comparatively few substances have been employed in the construction of fluorescent screens for visual examination. The platinocyanides were the first substances to find practical application for this purpose, both the barium and potassium salts being originally employed. Barium platinocyanide, however, soon proved its superiority over the corresponding potassium compound, and until about 1912 this salt was the only substance employed in the manufacture of visual fluorescent screens. Although fluorescent screens made from barium platinocyanide are of high quality, the considerable cost of this salt and the fact that the screens deteriorated in use, led to a search for other substances which should be free from these objections. A detailed account of barium platinocyanide screens has been given in a previous communication by one of the authors.1 Synthetically prepared Willemite (zinc silicate) was the next substance to be employed for the construction of fluorescent screens, but screens made from this substance have never achieved any large measure of success for reasons which are discussed later on. The next development consisted in the use of cadmium tungstate, of which material practically all modern fluorescent screens are made and which has held the field almost exclusively since the war. The intensity of the illumination of a fluorescent screen when excited by X rays should be as great as possible for a given energy input to the tube.

On a New Kind of Rays

If the electric discharge from a large Ruhmkorff coil is passed through a Hittorf vacuum tube, or through a sufficiently exhausted Lenard, Crookes, or similar tube, and if the tube is covered with a fairly close-fitting envelope of thin black card, it will be found that a paper screen placed near the apparatus and covered with barium platino-cyanide will become brightly luminous and fluorescent. It is immaterial whether the prepared side or the unprepared side is turned towards the apparatus. The fluorescence is still noticeable at a distance of 2 metres from the apparatus. It is easy to establish that the cause of the fluorescence proceeds from the discharge tube and from no other part of the electric circuit. The first remarkable feature about this phenomenon is that we have here an agent that can pass through a black card envelope which is impervious to the visible and ultra-violet rays of the sun or electric arc, and that this agent is capable of producing vivid fluorescence. One was, therefore, led f...

The Mecapion, an Ionisation Apparatus for the Absolute Measurement of X-ray Dose

The measurement of the quantity of X radiation is one of considerable interest to physicists and corresponding anxiety to radiologists. It may be stated that we have reached a stage when our progress in our knowledge of the treatment of malignant disease must depend upon our ability to measure accurately the dose which we are giving the treated tissues and on means of repeating that dose or a relative portion of it when necessary. The measurement of the intensity of an X-ray beam presents few difficulties under laboratory conditions. The energy of the beam can be converted into electricity, into heat, or into light and a measurement obtained in ordinary physical terms. Thus, it is known that an X-ray beam will raise the temperature of a unit of metal or water in a certain time and will likewise cause a crystal of barium platinocyanide to fluoresce and change colour, or a photo-sensitive paper to change its properties. These transferences of energy have been utilised to measure intensity dosage upon the skin and advantage has been taken of them in the pastilles of Sabouraud-Noiré, in the Holzknecht pastilles and in the Kienböck photographic strip. The relative fluorescence of a barium platinocynide screen has also been utilised to practical advantage, whilst the action of the rays upon a selenium cell can be used for the detection of their presence and quantity.

The Evaluation of the X-Ray Pastille Dose in Rontgen (r) Units

(1) A calibration in Rontgen r. units has been made of the B dose indicated by barium platinocyanide pastilles backed with lead and irradiated by unfiltered X rays from a Coolidge tube excited by voltages between 50 and 100 KV. from an induction coil. (2) About eight years ago a provisional ionisation standard based on an electroscope was set up at the National Physical Laboratory for the purpose of calibrating pastilles. It was then found that the product I.t of the ionisation (I) per unit time produced in the electroscope and the time (t) required for a pastille B dose was constant for a constant exciting voltage (70 KV.), on the X-ray tube. This work has now been extended over a range of from 50 to 100 KV. and I.t for the electroscope in question is found to increase with increasing kilovoltage. (3) A standard ionisation chamber (with graphite walls and using air at atmospheric pressure), has been designed and constructed, and by its aid the I.t readings of the electroscope in question have been expres...