Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Work

On 8 November 1895, the physics professor Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen made a historic discovery – largely by chance. While experimenting in his laboratory at the University of Würzburg with high electrical charges in a glass cathode-ray tube, he observed a previously unknown form of radiation. The rays, which Röntgen called “X-rays”, had the remarkable ability to penetrate matter, making it possible to look inside the human body without any physical intrusion – this was nothing short of a sensation.

Röntgen was so fascinated that he shut himself away in the laboratory for six weeks, working tirelessly to investigate further. On 22 December, he produced what would become arguably the most famous X-ray image in the world – the radiograph of his wife Anna Bertha’s hand.