1.
Röntgen's 'X'-Rays
 In
November 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays
while working at the University of Wurzburg, Germany.
Röntgen was investigating cathode rays in different
types of evacuated glass tubes and trying to determine
their range in air. He noticed that while the rays were
being produced, a screen coated in fluorescent barium
platinocyanide would glow. He was intrigued because
the screen was too far from the tube to be affected
by the cathode rays.
He
assumed unkown rays, X-rays,
were being emitted from the walls of the tube while
the cathode ray tube was running. To his amazement, Röntgen
found that the rays could pass straight through his
hand and cast shadows of his bones on the fluorescent
screen. He spent several weeks privately investigating
the rays before publishing his results at the end of
the year.
Röntgen's
paper described many of the properties of X-rays. He showed that they were:
- very penetrating and were able to pass through materials that are opaque to visible light.
- invisible to the human eye.
- would cause many types of material to fluoresce and could be recorded on photographic paper.
They were named 'rays' because they moved in straight lines like visible light.
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