ROENTGEN'S X-RAY DISCOVERY

How Wilhelm C. Roentgen's X-Ray Discovery Has Benefitted Public Health



How Wilhelm C. Roentgen's X-Ray Discovery Has Benefitted Public Health

Introduction

The research is done on the discovery of X-Ray which was invented by Wilhelm Rontgen. The study has the uses and impacts of x-ray on the public health. A German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895 detected and produced electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range that is known as X-rays. It was an achievement that got him the first Nobel Prize in Physics.

Historic Era That Wilhelm Roentgen Positively Impacted

In 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen was functioning in his laboratory with a cathode ray tube. He was operating with tubes that were parallel to the glowing light bulbs. He emptied the tube from air and filled it up with a gas, and then moved a very high voltage through it. After doing this, the tube would produce a shining glow. Roentgen protected the tube with a paper that was heavy and black, and establishes that a green colored luminous light could be seen through a screen setting a little foot away from the tube. (Herman, 2009)

He recognized that he had created an unidentified unseen light that was being released outside the tube; a ray that was capable of passing from a heavy paper that is covering the tube. By some other experimentation, he also established that the new ray would pass through most materials of solid objects. He gave it the name of X-ray, because X is used in mathematics to indicate the quantity that is unknown. (Herman, 2009)

In the discovery he originated that the X-ray would be passing through the human being tissues resting the metals and bones able to be seen. The information of that invention reached rapidly to the world. Everywhere most of the scientists were duplicating the experiment since cathode tube was famous during that period. After that X-rays were developed in the US for gunshot wounds and fractures.

Where Did Wilhelm Roentgen Live and Worked

Roentgen was born in Lennep in Rhenish Prussia as a single child of a merchant. In 1848, the family moved to the Netherlands. He got his early education at a boarding school in Apeldoorn. From 1861 to 1863, he attended the Ambachts School in Utrecht.

When heard he could enter the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, he passed its examinations, and began studies of mechanical engineering. In 1869, he did Ph.D. from the University of Zurich. (Herman, 2009)

Why Wilhelm Roentgen Was Compelled To Act

Before the invention of X ray machines, tumors, broken bones, and location of bullets were diagnosed by physical examination. 500 years before the invention of x-rays; an Italian surgeon placed a violin string between teeth of a patient. String would cause the skull to shake in a melodic note when it was plucked. It understood that if the sound is clear and bright, the skull was unbroken and strong. If the noise was weak, it showed that there is a crack. (Roobottom, 2010)

Challenges Faced Toward Along That Way to Effecting ...