Informative Essay: The Invention Of The X-Ray

X-Ray

“We look to medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line. There is science in what we do, yes, but also habit, intuition, and sometimes plain old guessing…” (Gawande) This sort of guessing is exactly what led to a monumental discovery in medicine still in use today. Large percent of humans benefit from this development. Are you one of those who has benefited?

There was no simple process of an examination on a patient prior to 1895 when William Roentgen discovered electromagnetic radiation, commonly known as the X-Ray. Before medical technologies took

Roentgen was working with tubes that resemble our fluorescent light bulbs, a special gas, and an electric voltage. He began by eliminating all the excess air from the tubes and exchanging it with a special gas. Once filled with the new gas, he passed a high electrical voltage through the tube which resulted in a fluorescent glow. Then he shielded the tube with heavy black paper and found that a green colored light appeared on a screen behind him. The invisible light ray emitted from the tube was unexpected. Since the tube was covered, it was apparent that the light ray had the ability to pass through various substances. With repeated experiments, he transferred the shadows to pieces of film which then could be used in medical diagnosis. Roentgen was able to project an image of his hand showing a contrast between the translucent flesh and opaque bones onto a photographic plate. The final product that Roentgen produced is very similar to the X-rays we experience today. The term X-ray was aptly named based on a mathematical consent where X represents the unknown. Even though physicians know much more about the X-ray process, we still refer to this electromagnetic radiation as