X-rays were discovered in November 1895 by a persistent German physicist named Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who was experimenting with printing photographic plates and the light produced by a predecessor of today’s fluorescent tubes: the Crookes tube.
A tremendous power surge blew up the entire experiment, and Röntgen, in order to continue his work, had to use new photographic plates that he kept in a nearby drawer. But, when developing these plates, the objects that covered them inside the drawer appeared printed . Thus he deduced that the light from the previous power surge had passed through the drawers and objects until it hit the plates.
Röntgen was faced with a disturbing “light” invisible to the human eye that was able to pass through solid objects and at the same time impress photographic plates. The phenomenon was unknown to the classical wave physics theories of the time. For this reason, he decided to baptize these radiations as “unknown or unknown”, since in physics and mathematics the letter “X” designates an unknown in any equation. This is how they are known throughout the world except in their country of origin, Germany, where they retain the name of their discoverer: “Röntgenstrahlung” (“Röntgen radiation”, literally). As a curious note, it should be noted that the aura of mystery that at first enveloped the unknown rays was one of their first applications and motivated them to be exhibited in traveling circuses, where they were shown as one of nature’s enigmas.
José Ramón Román is a Collaborating Professor at the University of Seville in the Faculties of Dentistry and Medicine. Article written in collaboration with the UCC + i of the University of Seville.
