The discovery of x-ray was one of the major event in science. I've been talking about x-rays from my previous post and now, I believe that it's time for me to give you a brief history if how it was discovered.

On November 8, 1895, Wilhelm Conrad R�ntgen, a German physics professor, began observing and further documenting X-rays while experimenting with Lenard and Crookes tubes. R�ntgen, on December 28, 1895, wrote a preliminary report "On a new kind of ray:

A preliminary communication". He submitted it to the W�rzburg's Physical-Medical Society journal. This was the first formal and public recognition of the categorization of X-rays. R�ntgen referred to the radiation as "X", to indicate that it was an unknown type of radiation. The name stuck, although (over R�ntgen's great objections), many of his colleagues suggested calling them R�ntgen rays. They are still referred to as such in many languages, including German.

There are conflicting accounts of his discovery because R�ntgen had his lab notes burned after his death, but this is a likely reconstruction by his biographers. R�ntgen was investigating cathode rays with a fluorescent screen painted with barium platinocyanide and a Crookes tube which he had wrapped in black cardboard so the visible light from the tube wouldn't interfere.

He noticed a faint green glow from the screen, about 1 meter away. The invisible rays coming from the tube to make the screen glow were passing through the cardboard. He found they could also pass through books and papers on his desk. R�ntgen threw himself into investigating these unknown rays systematically. Two months after his initial discovery, he published his paper translated "On a New Kind of Radiation" and gave a demonstration in 1896.

R�ntgen discovered its medical use when he saw a picture of his wife's hand on a photographic plate formed due to X-rays. His wife's hand's photograph (above) was the first ever photograph of a human body part using X-rays.