Wilhelm Röntgen The prize-winning PROFESSOR whose accidental discovery of invisible rays gave the green light for X-rays Bright spark Born in 1845 in Germany, Wilhelm Röntgen was raised in the Netherlands. He studied mechanical engineering before becoming a professor of physics. In 1895, while researching with an electric light tube, also known as cathode ray tube, he noticed an unusual glowing green light. This radiation was later identified as X-RAYS.
This photograph of Mrs Röntgen's hand is the world’s first X-ray.
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Since Röntgen’s discovery, doctors can look inside the human body to detect broken bones or serious illnesses.
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After further experiments, Röntgen proved that X-rays could travel through different materials, such as paper and skin. When he placed his wife’s hand between the X-ray beam and a photographic plate, her BONES COULD BE SEEN. This groundbreaking method of photographing inside the body won Röntgen the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. X-ray Röntgen’s s apparatu e chan
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