WILHELM RÖNTGEN AND THE X-RAY

By: Chris Massaro

April 12, 2011

Early Life and Family He was born on March 27, 1845 in Lennep,

Prussia (Now Remscheid, Germany) His parent’s names were Charlotte and

FriedrichAn interesting fact: Charlotte and Friedrich were first

cousinsApparently, that happened a lot back in those days

His father Friedrich was a textile merchant Röntgen was known as Willi by his parents

I feel I have a connection with him now, so for the rest of this power point I will do the same.

Education When Willi first began his academic career, he

attended the primary public school in Apeldoorn, Netherlands

In an attempt to increase his chances for receiving further schooling, his parents enrolled him in a private boarding school called Kostschool

In 1865 at the age of 20 Willi enrolled at the University of Utrecht to study physics

He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 1869 for his thesis on the states of gases

Willi the Trouble Maker Believe it or not, Willi got into a

little bit of trouble as a young man

The story…Willi, who was around 17 at the

time, and his buddies were making fun of one of their teachers at school

They drew a funny picture of this teacher (so childish…yet something that happens all of the time, sorry Dr. Waite)

The Teacher walked into the room and immediately blamed Willi

Artist’s rendition of sketch

Willi the Trouble Maker

It wasn’t actually Willi who drew the pictureBeing the good friend that he was, he took the blame

without a fight Willi was then expelled from school making it

nearly impossible to for him to get into a university

He then attempted to make it back into schoolThe plan was for him test his way into a similar

school

Willi the Trouble Maker

Unfortunately, the proctor he planned on having got sick and he ended up with a different one

This replacement was a teacher that had been very unfriendly to Willi throughout this entire ordeal

Willi failedEven without his high school

diploma he was allowed to audit

several courses on Mechanical Engineering

at the University of UtrechtEventually he was permitted to enroll in the

institute and continued his education

Imagine Imagine if our good friend Willi never got back

into school again We might not have his amazing discovery of X-

rays People would currently be walking around with

broken limbs without ever knowing THE HORROR Seriously though, that could have been the end

of all of his academic pursuits By a stroke of good fortune Wilhelm Röntgen

was able to restart his academic career

Willi’s one True Love During his time in school he spent

many nights talking science and intellect with Otto Ludwig, a “professor” at the university

Ludwig had a second daughter named Anna Bertha Ludwig who frequently sat in on these conversations

Both Willi and Bertha loved the outdoors and took nature walks together

The sparks flew and their love for one another grew

They eventually tied the knot in Apeldoorn, Netherlands on January 19, 1872

Anna Bertha Ludwig

Early Jobs Röntgen first became an assistant to August

Kundt, a professor of physics at the University of WürzbergThis helped him realize his interest in the pure

sciences He moved with Kundt to the Kaiser-Wilhelms-

Universität in Strasbourg in 1872 Eventually was appointed the Chair of Physics at

the University of Würzberg 1888 After jumping around for a few years he finally

settled in at the University of Munich in 1900

The University of Munich

Unfortunately this picture is not from the correct time period

His Contribution to Modern Physics Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays on

November 8th, 1895 While performing an experiment in his laboratory

that night, he accidentally discovered these rays Because of this discovery, the treatment of many

health issues have been possibleExamples: Broken bones and lupusIn addition, this makes it now possible to locate

objects inside of a body, like a bulletIt is far easier to surgically remove objects like these

once they have been located by X-rays

The Experiment Röntgen covered his cathode ray tube in thick, black

carbon, to block out all light He shot rays out of a cathode ray tube

He was not expecting anything spectacular to happen at this moment

He saw a green light appear some enormous distance awayBy enormous we mean that cathode rays had never been

observed at such a great distance before He repeated the experiment to see if it was a fluke He observed that when a plate covered in barium

platinocyanide phosphor was placed in the path of the rays, it became fluorescent

The Experiment He then replaced this plate with a photographic

plate to record the images. He held different objects in the path of the rays and

was fascinated by the resultsDepending on the transparency of the material, the plates

would burn an image of varying brightness He experimented with many different objects

This includes his wife’s hand○ The image produced (next page) was of the bones in her

hand and the ring she was wearing○ Notice how the ring is much darker than everything else

Since Röntgen didn’t have a name for these rays, he called them X-rays

Anna Bertha Röntgen’s Hand

The hand and a stamp cut off from the bottom of the image

Recreation of His Laboratory

Other Accomplishments

Willi published many scientific articles and papers throughout his lifeThese include: “On the Influence of Pressure

upon the Viscosity of Liquids, especially of Water” and “On the Thermo-, Actino-, and Piezo-electrical Properties of Quartz”

He Won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for his discovery of X-rays

Willi and his wife Bertha adopted Bertha’s niece Josephine Berta

His Last Days

At the age of 77 Willi hiked up his favorite mountain once more to see the awe inspiring view it gave

Shortly after his last hike he started to suffer from intestinal pain and asthmatic attacks

He died on February 10, 1923 from what doctors diagnosed as a blocked intestine

Affecting Modern Day Technology

Almost everyone has had an X-ray at some point in their life

When most people have symptoms of broken bones, they need X-rays

Without Röntgen who knows if this would be possible today

His discovery of X-rays caused countless scientists to turn their attention to phenomena like itIt is very logical to claim that his

discovery influenced the science behind so many others

Works Cited "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901". Nobelprize.org. 28 Apr 2011

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1901/

Thomsen, Volker. “Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the Discovery of X-Rays. (Cover Story).” Spectroscopy 23.7 (2008): 30-34. Academic

Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.

Nitske, W. Robert. The Life of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, Discoverer of the X Ray,. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1971. Print.