Wilhelm Roentgen

Traveling with the Atom

Allegheny College

(compiled by Dr.Glen E. Rodgers)

Roentgen's original paper describing his discovery of X-rays (for many years known as Roentgen rays)

Wilhelm Roentgen
German Physicist (1845-1923)

X-ray photograph of Mrs. Roentgen's hand with her wedding rings (1896)

Contribution to the Development of the Atomic Concept
In 1895, while working with cathode rays that were known to cause certain compounds to luminesce, Roentgen had the occasion to surround the tube with black paper. However, he found that a sheet of paper covered with a barium platinocyanide compound continue to luminesce. Even after he took the paper into another room, it continued to glow when the cathode ray tube was on. He had discovered something completely unknown to anyone else in the world -- X-rays. He experimented for two months and then announced is discovery in early 1896. The discovery X-rays was a sensation and soon led to Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity. The development of the atomic concept took a major step forward as a result of Roentgen's discovery.

Web Sources of Biographical Information
Top-Biographical Pages of Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, the X-Ray Man
A Philatelic History of Radiology Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen: The Discovery
The X-ray Century website
Willkommen im Deutschen Röntgen-Museum

Selected Biographical Books, Sections of Books, and Articles
Full biographical information on Sacks' book Uncle Tungsten	pp 245-247
Full biographical information on Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 2nd Ed.	pp 502-504
Wilhelm Conroad Roentgen and the Early History of the Roentgen Rays, by Otto Glasser	Wilhelm Roentgen and the Discovery of X-Rays (Unlocking the Secrets of Science), by Kimberly Garcia

Some Scientific/Historical Traveling Sites
Former Institute of Physics, University of Wurzberg, now a high school*(1)	The Roentgenring, Wurzburg (Bavaria), Germany; close to rail station
German site with a number of photographs of Roentgen's work rooms, X-ray photographs, etc.	Cannot be determined without German; translation does not yield address or directions; would appear to the high school indicated in the first row of this table

* see following Rodgers link to scientific/historical sites for further information.
(1) Taken from The Scientific Traveler, Charles Tanford and Jacqueline, John Wiley & Sons, NY (1992).
(2) Taken from A Travel Guide to Scientific Sites of the British Isles, Charles Tanford and Jacqueline Reynolds, John Wiley & Sons, NY (1995).
(3) Taken from Guide of Eurpoean Museums with collections on History of Chemistry, compiled by Jan W. van Spronsen, Federation of European Societies, Antwerp (1996)

Link to Dr. Rodgers' Scientific/Historical Site on Roentgen.

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