The accidental discovery of X-rays: Here is what you need to know
When we hurt ourselves in the leg or any other part of the body, we are immediately rushed to the hospital and the doctor prescribes an ‘X-ray’ of the injured part. The report with some white lines marked on a black background depicting the bone structure of the injured part is beyond our understanding, but the doctor is quick to make a diagnosis of the extent of the injury. He accordingly prescribes us the medicines or the treatment and we are good to go! That’s how simple life has become with the advent of X-rays. But it wasn’t the same before that. A broken bone, a tumour, or a swallowed object could not be found without cutting a person open.
So, who was the person who invented X-rays? It was German physics professor, Wilhelm Rontgen, who made this discovery in 1985. Rontgen was also honoured with a Nobel prize for the same in 1901.
The discovery
In late 1895, Rontgen was in his laboratory, experimenting on a vacuum tube covered in black cardboard when he noticed a mysterious glow coming from a chemical-coated screen nearby. Confused and intrigued, he went on to put objects between the tube and the screen to see the shadows they produced. He discovered that putting his hand in front of the glow allowed him to see past his skin to his bones, thus leading to the world's first X-ray. He named the new rays causing this glow ‘X-strahlen’. X indicates unknown in mathematics and since the nature of these rays remained unknown to him he named it so. Strahlen is German for “ray”.
X-rays emerged from the laboratory and landed straight in hospitals and diagnostic centres to detect diseases and injuries to broken bones. Within a year of its discovery, X-ray was an established part of the medical profession.
How do X-Rays work?
X-rays are a type of radiation that can pass through the body. They can't be seen by the naked eye and you can't feel them. As they pass through your body, the energy from X-rays is absorbed at different rates by different parts of your body. A detector on the other side of your body picks up the X-rays after they've passed through and turns them into an image.
Dense parts of your body that X-rays find more difficult to pass through, such as bone, show up as clear white areas on the image. Softer parts that X-rays can pass through more easily, such as your heart and lungs, show up as darker areas.
Where does X-ray find its use?
X-rays are used to analyse problems with bones, teeth and any other organs in the human body. What’s more, they are used at airports and rail terminals as scanners to inspect your luggage. They are even used to detect cracks in the aircraft that you fly in to make them safer for you. They are also widely used to detect the defects in welds in the metal industry.