The Early History of X-Ray Diagnosis - Mould PDF

Phys. Med. Biol. 40 (1995) 1741-1787.
Printed in the UK
REVIEW
The early history of x-ray diagnosis with emphasis on the

contributions of physics 1895-1915
R F Mould
41 Ewhurst Avenue. Sanderstead, South Croydon. Surrey CR2 ODH, UK
Received 13 January 1995
Abtract. The contribution of physics to the development of x-ray diagnosis was vital in the
early yean of this century following Rontgens discovery of x-rays in November 1895. This
review records some of the highlights during the period 1895-1915. Much of the information
presented has been buried in libraries for more than 50 years and the selection of illustrations
and text will be largely unknown to todays readership of Physics in Medicine and Biology
It is also a celebration of what could be achieved in physics before the occurrence of the
technological revolution involving not only computer applications but also the disappearance
of the small independent x-ray companies into todays multinational companies. Research and
development is nowadays just too expensive for much independent practical high-technology
contributions without financial backing. Hence this review takes us to those bygone years
of experimental physics in home laboratories, poorly equipped university physics laboratories
and of the lecture-demonstrations of the period. The sections are presented in a logical order
beginning with the discovery of x-rays, followed by x-ray tube technology to the advent of the
hot cathode Coolidge tube. with the third and final section covering diagnostic radiology physics.
It has been compiled from personal research over 35 yeam in libraries worldwide, drawing on
textbooks, journals. popular magazines, newspapers, x-ray company catalogues and museum
exhibits. I have included a certain m o u n t of anecdotal information, because after all, much
af the early commentaries were indeed anecdotal-and make very interesting reading. Finally
it is commented that although this review is devoted to x-ray diagnosis, x-ray therapy should
not be forpotten, and readen are referred to another review by the author on early therapeutic
advances.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Discovery of x-rays
2.1. Wurzburg: November 1895
2.2. Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen: December 1895
2.3. Rontgens communication with Schuster: January 1896
2.4. Lecture-demonstrations: 1896
2.5. Textbooks: 1896
2.6. Experimental physics: 18954
2.7. Work of a hospital physicist: 1895-7
2.8. Advertisements: 1896
3. X-ray tubes
3.1. Electric discharge tubes before 1895
3.2. Rontgen and x-ray tubes: 18954
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3.3. Introduction of a metal target: March 1896

3.4. The focus tube: March 1896
3.5. Funher modifications to x-rays tubes: 1896
3.6. Vacuum regulation
3.7. Target design
3.8. Ancillary equipment
4. Diagnostic radiology physics
4.1. Reference books: 1897-1915
4.2. Hard, medium and soft x-ray quality: 1900
4.3. %sua1 quality control: 1904
4.4. Chiroscopes and Osteoscopes: 1903-4
4.5. Radiochromators, chromoradiometers, quantimeters and pastilles: 1902-5
4.6. Ionization unit of Villard 1908
4.7. Gold leaf and tin foil electroscopes: 1896 and 1904
4.8. Ionization experiments of J J Thomson: 1896
4.9. Free-air ionization chamber: 1896
4.10. Ionization measurements by the 1920s
4.11. Work of a physicist by the 1920s
4.12. Fluoroscopes and photofluoroscopes: 1896-1902
4.13. Densitometer: 1902
4.14. X-ray tube protection: 1902-15
5. T ~ l the
y electric egg has been hatched
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1. Introduction
Rontgen discovered x-rays 100 years ago to the month of publication of this review.
The professions in the forefront of technical developments in x-ray apparatus in the late
1890s were mainly physicists and engineers. Although there were also contributions from
photographers, because of their interest in images, and medical men, as they were then
called in the scientific literature, who initially wrote mainly on the applications of the new
rays in surgery, referring to the location of foreign bodies.
Later there were many physics contributions from physicians, not least in the area
of proposals for units of measurement, devices to measure beam quality, and equipment
accessories such as x-ray tube shields and diaphragms. It is though particularly appropriate
that Physics in Medicine und Biology celebrates the centennial with a review which gives
emphasis to the contributions of physics and engineering in the early years following the
discovery of x-rays.
Any journal review must be selective, for reasons of space if nothing else, but in
spite of this the following text and illustrations clearly demonstrate the enormous range
of applications of physics to early diagnostic radiology, which laid the foundations for the
progress which has been achieved in this specialty a century &er Rontgens discovery.
2. Discovery of x-rays
2.1. Wiirzburg: November I895
It was on 8 November 1895 in the Physical Institute of the University of Wiirzburg that
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (figure 1) discovered x-rays. He was experimenting with various
Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915
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Figure 1. Ponrait in oils by William Reitr. dated 1895. It is a reasonable likeness but it
is impossible for it to havs been painted in 1895, x-rays only having been discovered in the
November of that year and the first communication of the discovery in late December. Also.
there is no record of Rhnrgen ever sihing far this a i s 1 and indeed it would have k e n out of
character (courtesy of Wellcome Trustees).
Lenard and Crookes tubes when an unexpected observation was made. Some platino-barium
cyanide fluorescent material smeared on thin cardboard and lying near one of the excited
tubes which was covered with black light-tight paper, glowed visibly.
It did not take Rontgen long to discover that not only black paper, but other objects such
as a wooden plank, a thick hook and metal sheets, were also penetrated by these x-rays.
More important though, he found, according to his biographer Glasser (1931, 1933), that
Strangest of all, while flesh was very transparent, bones were fairly opaque, and interposing
his hand between the source of the rays and his bit of luminescent cardboard, he saw the
bones of his living hand in silhouette upon the screen. The great discovery was made.
2.2. Ueber eine neue Ari von Sirahlen: December 1895
On 1 January 1896 Rontgen wrote to scientific colleagues in several countries enclosing

some example radiographs (figures 2, 3 and 4), each marked with the stamp Physik lnstitut
der Universitat Wiirzburg. He published only three papers on the subject of x-rays, none
of which included reproduction of any of his radiographs. The first (1895) was entitled
Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen was published in the Sitzungsberichie der Physikalischmedizinischen Gesellschafl zu Wiirzburg and was set out in 17 numbered paragraphs. His
second (1896) communication was a continuation of the first with additional paragraphs
18-21. These two (1895, 1896) communications by Rontgen which were published in
English by Glasser (1933) have been reproduced in 1995 and for the first time ever within
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the pages of a journal (Mould 1995b), they are accompanied by illustrations of the eight
original November 1895 radiographs made by Rontgen and mailed to Sir Arthur Schuster
(see section 2.3). His third and final paper (1897) was entitled Furthur observations on the
properties of X-rays and its English translation was published in the 1899 Archives o f f h e
Roentgen Ray.
Figure 2. I possess photographs of the shadow of the mouldings of a door separating the rooms
in which the discharge apparalus an the one hand and the photographic plate on the other were
set up (courtesy of Wellcome Trustees).
One of the most recent English translations of the 21 paragraphs of the first two
of Rontgens papers is by Feather (1958). who describes Rontgens attitude to his own
work as an extreme example of his general caution and reticence. This translation follows
several previous ones, of which the first English version was by Arthur Stanton published
in Nature on 23 January 1896 and reprinted in February 1896 in a specially issued pamphlet
entitled The new light and the new photography for the photographic magazine The
Photogram. Selected parts of some of these paragraphs from Rontgens first communication
are now reproduced after Feather (1958). They clearly show the wide extent of Rontgens
experiments and his conclusions, which were to gain him in 1901 the award of the first
Nobel Prize for Physics (figure 5).
[l].. .The fluorescence is still noticeable at a distance of 2 metres from the apparatus.
One readily convinces oneself that whatever is causing the fluorescence emanates from the
discharge apparatus and from no other point of the circuit.
[21 The first striking thing about this phenomenon is that some form of activity capable
of exciting vivid fluorescence is passing through the black cardboard envelope, which allows
no ultra-violet rays of sunlight or the light of the electric arc to pass through it.. . Glass
plates of equal thickness behave differently according as they contain lead (flint glass) or
not; the former are much less transparent than the latter. . .
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Figure 3. Photograph of the shadow of a concealed wire winding on a wooden bobbin (Rdntgen
1895). Both figures 2 and 3 were sent by Rdntgen on I J a n u q 1896 Lo Sir Arthur Schuster,
Professor of Physics in the University of Manchester (courtesy of Wellcome Trustees).
[3]. . .the transparency of different substances, layers of equal thickness being assumed,
is essentially determined by their density.. .
[ 5 ] Sheets of platinum, lead, zinc and aluminium were prepared by rolling, of such
thickness that all appeared to be approximately transparent. . .
PI
Pb
Zn
AI
Thickness
Relative thickness
0.018 mm
0.05 mm
0.10 mm
3.5 mm
3
6
200
Density
21.5
11.3
7.1
2.6
[6] The fluorescence of barium platinocyanide is not the only recognizable action of
the X-rays. . .other bodies also fluoresce: for instance the calcium compounds known as
phosphors, as well as uranium glass, ordinary glass, calcspar, rock salt, etc.. .photographic
dry plates have proved to be sensitive to the X-rays.. .and where possible I have checked
each more important observation made visualy on the fluorescent screen by a photographic
exposure.. .
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Figure 4. Hand of Frau Rantgen. This photograph was sent to Professor Ludwig Zender
of Frejburg in Breisgau. who had been a former student of Rontgen (counesy of Deutsches
Rsntgen-Museum, Remscheid).
[7]. . .Experiments with water and carbon disulphide in mica prisms with a refracting
angle of 30" give no recognizable deflection whatever.. .
[ 8 ] .. . reflection of X-rays.. .with none of the substances investigated does appreciable
regular throwing hack of the rays take place.. .
[lo]. , .in comparing the intensities of the fluorescent light of my screen in atmospheric
air at two distances, about 100 m m and 200 m m from the discharge apparatus.. .the
intensities are related inversely as the squares of the corresponding distances from the
discharge apparatus. . .
[ l l ] . . .I have not succeeded in obtaining a deflection of the X-rays by a magnet. . .
[12]. . .the point of the wall of the discharge tube apparatus which fluoresces most
strongly must he regarded as the principal point of origin of the X-rays spreading in all
directions. Thus the X-rays originate from the point at which, according to the statement
of various workers, the cathode rays strike the wall.. .X-rays are not identical with cathode
rays.. .
Physics contribuiions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915
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Cl31 This generation takes place not only in glass, but also in aluminium., ,
[171.. .There does appear to be a kind of relationship between the new rays and light
rays, at all events the shadow formation, fluorescence and chemical action, which occur
with both types of rays, point in that direction. , ..
Figure 5. The 1901 Nobel Prize far Physics ceniiicate awarded to RBnlgen (courtesy of Physical
Institute, University of Wurzburg).
2.3. Rontgens communication with Schuster: January 1896
An interesting account of the receipt of one of the sets of Rontgens photographs and a
copy of his first paper which were posted from Wurzburg on 1 January 1896, is recorded
by Sir Arthur Schuster (1911) in his memoirs. I opened a flat envelope containing
photographs, which without accompanying explanation, were unintelligible. Among them
was one showing the outlines of a hand, with its bones clearly marked inside. I looked for
a letter which might give the name of the sender and explain the photographs. There was
none, but inside an insignificant wrapper I found a thin pamphlet entitled Ueber eine neue
Art von Strahlen by W C Rontgen.
This was the first authentic news that reached England of a discovery made at the
end of the year 1895, which both directly and indirectly gave a tremendous impulse to
experimental science. Before I left the room I had read and re-read Rontgens account, which
concisely but convincingly described the experiments, by which he had with remarkable
ability, investigated and determined the main properties of the new radiation.
Schuster, then Professor of Physics at Manchester University, goes on to describe the
experimental results and then the interest which the discovery roused in the scientific
world and the sensation it created generally and that there were few laboratories in which
attempts were not immediately made to repeat the experiment. This was not all together
easy, because few institutions were then provided with the appliances necessary to obtain
so perfect a vacuum as that required for the purpose, and also because the English lead
glass is much less suitable that the soft German glass to excite and transmit the rays.
He ends with a complaint that the consequence of the discovery was that my laboratory
was inundated by medical men bringing patients, who were suspected of having needles
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in various parts of their bodies and during one week I had to give the best part of three
mornings locating a needle in the foot of a ballet dancer.
Schuster had even more difficult problems later on 23 April I896 when he sent two
assistants to a small town north of Manchester to locate a bullet in the skull of a dying
woman who had been shot by her husband. He records that his private assistant completely
broke down under the strain and excitement of all this work. His daughter Norah Schuster
(1968) has documented this case and states that the probable exposure time for two initial
skull radiographs was 60 and 70 minutes when three bullets were located. When Schuster
himself visited the patient on 2 May he located a fourth bullet. Figure 6 is a radiograph
dated 2 May 1896 captioned a skull, with a bullet placed inside and must he one of the
earliest examples of a test phantom being used by a physicist i n diagnostic radiology.
Figure 6. Skull with B bullet placcd inside, for use es

2 May 1896 (courtesy of Wellcome Trustees).
test object by Sir Anhur Schuster,
2.4. Lecture-demonstrations: 1896

A A Campbell-Swinton was an electrical engineer and is credited with being the first in
the United Kingdom to make a radiograph of any human anatomy when he radiographed
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his own hand on 13 January 1896. Five days earlier he had produced the radiograph
shown in figure 7 which is typical of this period and figure 8 shows him during his lecturedemonstration at the Royal Photographic Society, London, on 11 February 1896. This was
specifically photographed for a popular journal of the day, The Windsor Magazine, for an
article entitled Marvels of the new light written by the photographer H Snowden Ward
(1896a) and was part of a series including a private x-ray laboratory and an x-ray tube
manufacturers workshop. The famous pear-shaped x-ray tube design used by Rontgen is
clearly visible and in these very early days it seen that wooden chemical retort stands and
a pile of hooks formed an essential part of the apparatus for taking an x-ray of the hand.
Figure 7. One of the earliest radiographs in the United Kingdom. This was taken through
an aluminium screen on 8 January 1896 (see also figure 20 below, top right) by CampbellSwinton who is s e n at a lecture-demonstration in figure 8 below, and together with other early
radiograpms is also reproduced in the 1905 issue of the Journal of the Ronlgen Sociery (courtesy
of The Science Museum,London).
Snowden Ward was also a prolific lecturer travelling round England demonstrating the
use of x-rays on volunteer patients either introduced by local physicians or members of
the audience. Figure 9 is an example of one of his lecture advertisements for 1896. The
local newspaper gave the following report. The audience was composed largely of medical
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Figure 8. Photograph in The Windwr Magazine Of April 1896 captioned Mr A A CampbellSwinton surroundcd by his apparatus used in lecturing before The Royal Photographic Society.
gentlemen, professional and amateur photographers, scientific students and hospital nurses.
One of the most successful radiograms was a surgical case of a little boy with a double
thumb. The exposure was less than one minute. The hand was moved after 15 seconds and
from that fact the image was slightly blurred, Ward conjectured that the vacuum tube was
operating for only about one-quarter or one-third the exposure time. The radiograph was
taken in the afternoon before the lecture and during the evening he tried to take another
radiogram of the hand, but the experiment failed. Almost a decade later this radiogram
was published in the Journal oftbe RBntgen Society (Ward 1905).
2.5. Textbooks: 1896

Snowden Ward (1896b) who was mentioned in the previous section was also one of the
earliest authors of a textbook giving practical advice on the use of x-rays. The eight chapters
in his May 1896 book were [ I ] A brief history, [2] How to make an accumulator, 131 How to
make an induction coil, [4] Apparatus for radiography, [SI Practical radiography+lectricaI,
[6] Practical radiography-photographic,
[7] Practical radioscopy, [8] Applications and
probable advances. This last chapter gives an interesting view of topics considered to be of
importance at the end of the first six months following the discovery and is reproduced in
summary in table I .
There were in fact very few textbooks on x-rays published in 1896, apart from that
by Ward, a rather more popular work entitled Something About X-raysfor Everybody by
Edward Trevert of Lynn, Massachusetts, USA, who appears to have been an electrician, that
by Edward P Thompson of New York who described himself as an engineer and inventor,
and the much more extensive and academic book by the New York physician Henry Morton
and electrical engineer Edwin Hammer (Morton and Hammer 1896).
Morton and Hammer divided their text into four parts [l] Definitions, [Z] Apparatus,
[3] Operation, [4] Surgical value of the X-ray. They published 91 illustrations which were
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Table 1. Applications, advice and commentary as of May 1896 from the textbaok by Ward
(1896b) which went into three editions with Isenthal as co-author in 1898 and 1901.
Surgical applications are by far the most important up to the present.

Nervousness of patients is one of the difficulties in surgical work.
Clothing need seldom be removed except boots with nails or irons or dresses stiffened
with steel or thick whalebones.
Splints may remain if they are of wood,
Germicidal powen are claimed by three Professon in Chicago, but not from experimental
data.
Medicinal value is claimed and Dr Middleton of New York who thinks that the rays which
consist of streams of material particies, can be used to convey medicinal matter and
deposit it at the actual seat of the disease, thus enabling consumption and cancer to be
cured.
A plan and elevation are necessary to locate exactly any foreia body, e.g. for a bullet in
the thigh, anterior, posterior and lateral radiograms are necessary.
A triangulation method may also be adopted by using two tubes at a slight distance apart,
so that the two shadows m y be cast upon one screen or dry plate. The object can be
located by measuring relative positions of tubes, subject and screen.
The fleshy svuctures are now to be differentiated. since radiography has been so far
perfected that every p a ~ of
I the adult human skeleton has been radiographed.
Contents of packets. The Post Office and Customs Offices have found radioscopy very
valuable in detecting coins concealed in packets, and watches and other contraband in
books.
The detective force in Paris and London have found the method useful for revealing the
contents of suspected packets which have proved to be infernal machines.
Flaws in metal and bad alloying may be detected.
False gems may be detected by their x-ray transparency or opacity.
The value of cattle food for bone forming purposes is being studied.
Radiographing the skull is not difficult, though radiography of the brain will probably long
be impossible.
The use of the vacuum tube close to the head has been reported to cause the hair to
fall out.
The arrangements of balteries and induction coils (or Wimshunt and spark gap) are by no
means find.
The construction of the tube and especially its best extent of exhaustion are still subject
to revision.
On the best formulae for the dry plates and developer we still want much light.
mainly radiographs but also a photograph of Mortons laboratory in which simultaneous

radiography and fluoroscopy of the hand is seen, figure 10.
Morton also published the worlds first whole body radiograph, in the July 1897 issue
of The Archives of the Roentgen Ray. His apparatus was described as including a 12
induction coil whose primary was supplied from 117 volt Edison current of the New York
street mains and an ordinary Crookes tube with a commencing vacuum corresponding to a
spark of 2 which gradually rose to 8. The distance of the tube to the X-ray plate was 54
and the time taken, including stoppages, was 30 minutes.
spica1 pamphlets of this early period can be found in the historical collection of
the British Institute of Radiology and include those of Howgrave-Graham (1896), Dittmar
(1896), Niewenglowski (1896), Ward (1896~)and Schurmayer (1899). Popular magazines
of 1896 also contained lengthy articles on the discovery, such as The Windsor Magazine
(Ward 1896a) and The Strand Magazine (Porter 1896).
2.6. Experimental physics: 18956
The book by Thompson (1896) is not strictly speak a textbook, but more a summary of
210 experiments conducted by various scientists including Faraday, Kelvin, J J Thomson,
R F Mould
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Figure 9. Advertisement form 1896 lecture on x-rays.
Geissler, Tesla, Crookes, Heris, Lenard, Rontgen, Lodge, Tesla and Edison. It does
though contain fascinating descriptions of 19th experimental physics relating to electricity,
magnetism and x-rays. Three illustrations, figures 11 to 13, have been selected from this
book.
Figure 11 is of the Edison sciascope, with Thomas Edison at the right of the photograph.
Bottom left is a Sprengel vacuum pump and the x-ray tube is housed in the box. This
sciascope formed the centrepiece of the Edison X-Ray Exhibit at the New York Electrical
Exposition of the Electric Light Association in June 1896.
Figure 12 was first published in the Electrical Engineer, New York on 22 April 1896
and shows the apparatus devised April 1896 by E Wilbur Rice, the Technical Director of
the General Electric Company, for obtaining a sciagraph using a Wimshurst machine with
16" diameter glass plates. The principal feature of the arrangement was the introduction of
a lead diaphragm containing a central aperture of 7" to 8" diameter opposite the fluorescent
spot. This increased the exposure time from 30 minutes to 60 minutes but improved the
Figure 10. Henry J Monan's New York x-ray laboratory in 1896.
Figure 11. The Ediaon rkrarcope or 1896.
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Figure 12. The I896 experiment aiRice in which the introduction ofa lead diaphragm improved
image sharpness although lengthening the time of exposure.
sharpness of the image.

Figure 13 is an experiment by Stine of the Armour Institute of Technology and was first
published in the Elecrrical Engineer, New York on 11 April 1896 under the title Source
of X-rays determined by skiagraphs of short tubes. This was to prove that X-rays have
their source at the area struck by the cathode rays located directly opposite the disk marked
cathode and that the rays did not come from the anode. Five photographic plates were
used as shown in the diagram, with the letter A used for orientation purposes. The object
used for imaging purposes were several short sections of tubes with diameters varying from
0.5 to 3. The skiagraph shown here is for Plate 5 .
Figure 14 is the image from an experiment in St Petersburg by Prince Galitzin and
Karnojitsky (1896) with the same study aim as Stine, figure 13. They used a board
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Figure 13. Stine's 1896 experiment to determine the source of the x-ray emission.
containing a regular pattern of nails and a photographic plate beneath the board. Some
13 different x-ray tubes were used and in their analysis of the resultant shadow patterns
they demonstrated that the x-rays were produced from the target, which in the pear-shaped
tube was the glass, marked 0, opposite the cathode which is marked K. The anode is marked
A.
2.7. Work of a hospital physicist: 1895-7
Hospital physicists were extremely rare in 1895 and perhaps C E S Phillips of The Royal
Cancer Hospital, London (later to be renamed as The Royal Marsden Hospital) was the
only one in England immediately prior to the discovery of x-rays. He may well not have
been a salaried employee since he was already a millionaire (travelling to the hospital in
Chelsea on horseback from Shooters Hill: not a method of transport normally chosen by
modern hospital physicists!) and what was later known as a 19th century gentleman scientist
who conducted experiments as a hobby rather than as a necessity for earning a living. He
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Figurc 14. 1x96 enpenmcnt o l Galilr,in and Kamojitsky dcvised for the same purpose ac Stine,
sec figure 13.
was elected a member of The Royal Institution in 1894 with Lord Kelvin acting as his
proposer. He was also a gifted cartoonist as seen from his notebooks and in addition was
an accomplished violinist.
In 1895 he was experimenting with gas discharge tubes and also with the design of
pumps for evacuating the tubes. What is remarkable is that his experimental notebooks
together with an album of x-ray pictures, which h e termed Rontographs, starting in February
1896 has survived to the present day. Figure 15 reproduces a page from one of these
notebooks of 1899 on the influence of the form of the x-ray tube bulb. His comments
following the announcement in The Electrician of 10 January 1896 of Rontgens discovery
were that he obtained his first result with the new rays on 10 February with an exposure
of about one hour. The Lenard tube used was of the pear-shaped type and Phillips records
under the heading of History of the tube the following commentary.
At first when I excited the tube it glowed with a blueish colour with flickering whiteish
flames here and there. This gave no Ronto-effects with a three-quarter hour exposure. The
tube then turned greenish after two days pretty continual excitation and Ronto-effects were
obtained with one hour exposure. The tube became bathed in green flames internally licking
the glass after another day or two and then the best effects were obtained.This best condition
lasted about a week and then the resistance of the tube began to increase.
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. LFL~ENCE
OF FORM
OF RD'LR.
...
Figure 15. Page of an 1899 laboratory notebook of 1899 from London's first hospital physicist:
Charles E S Phillips. 'Cossor (a major X-ray tube manufacturer) tells me that the best position
of the cathode is just within its tube. If the cathode be placed a litfle beyond the line AB so that
it appears somewhat in the wider portion of the bulb, the glass will become covered with green
sveaks and patches. The anti-cathode should he placed at mice the focal length of the curved
cathode'.
Later, in 1907, he attended a meeting of the American Rontgen Ray Society and 30 years
before the international acceptance of the roentgen as a unit of me&urement for both x-rays
and gamma rays, advocated a unit based on ionization either by x-rays or a radioactive
element (Philips 1907). This pre-dates Villard's (1908) proposal that a unit be defined as
'that quantity of X-radiation which liberates by ionisation one esu of electricity per cm3 of
air under normal conditions of temperature and pressure' which was essentially the same
as the first definition in 1928 of the roentgen unit.
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Table 2. Selected enuies from the bibliopphy compiled by C E S Phillips for 1896-7.
Action of X-rays upon the diamond
Buget g: Gas& (France 1896) found that true diamonds are far more transparent CO
X-rays than are their imitarions and that the same holds good for jet.
Action of Rantgen rays upon electrostatic charges and discharge potentials
Borgman & Genhun (France 1896) found that a zinc disc positively charged lost its
charge under the influence of X-rays and then acquired a negative charge of a certain fixed
value.
Arterial system photographed by R h t g e n rays
Dutto (Italy 1896) injected sulphate of calcium, which is a salt opaqure to the rays, into
the hand of a corpse. The solution was sufficiently dilute to penetrate into the small veins.
The result was entirely satisfactoly.
Bacteria and Riintgen rays
Minck (Germany 1896) found that the rays had no appreciable effect upon typhus bacilli
in agar-agar medium.
Crookes tube experiments
BattWi & Gabbasso (ltaly 1896) described numerous experiments relating to the behaviour
of the Crookes tube and investigated the Vansparency of various materials. They pointed
out that the curve plotted between density and transparency is roughly a parabola.
Thermo-luminescence provoked by Rlintgen rays and Becquerrl rays
Borgman (France 1897) used a calcined mixture of M o a 50% of MnSo4 and obtained
vigorous thenno-luminous effects with both R6ntgen and Becquerel rays.
Solar X-rays on Pikes Peak
Cajori (USA 1896) after careful experiments at a height of 14,147 ft. found no trace of
RBntgen rays.
Ewperiments with spark gap

Cave (England 1896) studied the effect of X-rays on spark gap. For a mnstant gap he
found that the number of sparks passing per minute was greater under X-rays than when
the rays were screened off with a zinc plate.
Maximum power of Crookes tubes
Chappuis & Nugues (France 1896) found that with a particular induction coil used, the
maximum RBntgen radiation was reached with IO breaks per second.
Notes on radiography
Hall-Edwards (England 1896) gave an account of radiographs obtained through six.
seven and 10 layers of pen-steel, sheet-copper and seven layen of sheet-lead. Tube used
required an 11.5 spark and a five minute exposure.
Method of estimating intensity of X-rays
Branson (England 1896) described a method using an aluminium quadrant in millimetre
steps, superposed on a sensitive plate and exposed for a definite time, the number of steps
being proportional to the intensity of the X-rays.
Reducing q o s u r e in RUntgen photography
Basilewsld @rancc 1896) stated thal the use of fluorescent bodies in contact with the
sensitive plate could reduce exposure.
Photometry of X-rays
Roiti (Italy 1896) studied methods of comparing the intensity of X-ray sources. He
points out that a spark between the coil and the anode increased the penetrative power of
the rays.
However, to return to 1896, Charles Phillips was also producing a bibliography of x-ray
literature by subject (rather than by author) which together with the book by Thompson
(1896) cannot afford to he ignored by any historian. Most are given only as references, but
some of what he considered the more interesting papers are given a short summary and a
selection are reproduced in table 2.
1759
2.8. Advertisements: 1896
Advertisements were often to be found in 19th century scientific books and those by
Thompson (1896), Ward (1896a) and Phillips (1897) are no exception. They interestingly
describe the equipment commercially available at the time and figures 16 to 18 are some
typical examples.
3. X-ray tubes
3.1. Electric discharge tubes before I895
The x-ray tube derives from the cathode ray tubes of Crookes, Hittorf and the 19th century
physicists who were investigating electric discharges through gases. These discharge tubes
were usually cylindrical in shape but figure 19, which is the first published illustration of
tube variants, shows the wide variety available in 1896. This diagam was originally in the
French journal Lo Nature and then reproduced in Nature on 28 January 1897.
Phillips (1897) reviews the precursors of the x-ray tube and this is summarized in table
3 and it is noted that the early tubes were often referred to as Geissler tubes. Phillips ended
his review with the words Truly the electric egg has been well hatched! after looking
back at the 60 years of work on electric discharge and this is also a relevant comment
today, 160 years later, with respect to technological advances such as CT scanners, digital
subtraction angiography, linear accelerators, etc (Mould 1993).
Crookes tubes in figure 19 are numbered 1, 2 and 20, of which 20 is the simple
cylindrical discharge tube with two electrodes and a small side tube which would have been
connected to a pump, see figure 18, to exhaust the tube. The cathode disc is supported by
a small rod normally of platinum, and the disc material would have been aluminium or an
alloy of aluminium (R@nneand Nielson 1986). To ensure an airtight seal through the glass
wall a metal had to be used with the same coefficient of expansion as the glass. Platinum
was used with the tube glass around the rod oRen reinforced by lead glass. The anode of
these primitive tubes was an aluminium stick, placed in an arbitrary position usually in a
small lateral glass pipe stub: as seen in figure 19 for various tubes.
3.2. Rontgen md x-ray tubes: 1895-6
It was a Crookes tube similar to figure 19 number 1 that was used by Rontgen in 1895 when
he discovered x-rays. Others used, and possibly designed, by him are numbered 24 and
32. As already noted, Rontgen only published three papers on the topic of x-rays although
his lifetime output was 55 papers and in 1900 he left Wiirzburg to become Professor of
Physics at the University of Munich from which time he concentrated on his previous area
of interest, solid state physics, until his retirement in 1920 and his death in 1923.
Even so, there are a few interesting items of information on record which relate to
Rontgen and x-ray tubes. For example in his second communication (Rontgen 1896) he
states According to my previous experience, platinum is the best metal for generation of
the most efficientX-rays.. ...I use a concave mirror of aluminium as cathode and a piece of
platinum foil, which, turned 45 to the mirror axis, constitutes the anode. This describes a
focus x-ray tube, see section 3.4.
There is also on record some of Rontgens correspondencewith x-ray tube manufacturers
such as Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall of Erlangen on 27 November 1896, the original of which
has been reproduced by Mould (1980). They are told that their tubes are very good indeed
but too expensive and Rontgen asks for a reduction in price from 30 DM to 20 DM. Similar
1760
R F Mould
3ohn 3. Griffin 8
50n0. Etb.
DEMONSTRATIONS snd dl particulaia, either verbdly 01 by conrapondenoe, given gratis t o intanding purobulan.
22, GARRICK ST., LONDON, W.C.

Figure 16. Advertisement from a London company for induction coils. tubes and screens: note
the line drawing o f a Cossor x-ray tube on the right, as this is mentioned in the legend to figure
15 (Wad 1896b).
pleas to manufacturers are no doubt still occurring 100 years later although the costs involved
will now be somewhat higher than 30 DM! He had also written earlier on 3 November 1897
referring to excellent image quality with their tubes, particularly for a skull radiograph. This
1761
R O E N T G E N OUTFIT.
Photographing Invisible Objects.
PROF. E. THOMSON'S FOCUS TUBES,
NEWTON'S FOCUS TUBES,

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E I M E R & AMEND,
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5
a
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w 23 g
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W
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z = b C
0 = 2 ;
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-1-
Complete X-Ray Apparatus.
z =
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INTERNATIONAL
ELECTRICCo.,
76 BEEKMAN
STREET, NEW YORK,

>I>\,
li.iC11 l 2 B K I
(1)
Ruhmkorff Coils
.AY,>
Electrical Instruments.
GENERAL EXPEMMEHTAL WORK.
Figure 17. AdveRisementS fmm New York companies far Roentgen apparatus (Thompson
1896).
forms an illustration in the Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall (1897) catalogue and the exposure is
stated to have taken 11 minutes and a chest radiograph in the same catalogue, 12 minutes.
In both instances the distance from tube to patient was 15 cm.
However, Rontgen did not only use German x-ray tubes but is included in the advertising
1762
R F Mould
Figure 18. Vacuum pumps were an essential p a of the early equipment required and this
advenisement for Geryk pumps were frequent during the penod 1896-9. This advertisement
claims it is better than the Sprengel pump which is seen in figure I 1 being used with the Edison
skiascope (Phillips 1897).
statements (Kassabian 1907)for the American Queen & Company self-regulating tubes as
being of the opinion that these tubes are Especially ingenious.
Finally, a statement attributed to Rontgen from his correspondence (although it seems
1763
Table 3. Brief selected commentw of work on electric discharge: after Phillips (1897). Other
names which would be included in a more extensive review (Eisenberg 1992) include Torricelli,
Boyle, Haukesbee, F n W i n , Gdvani, Volta, Ocnted, Amphre, Ohm. Maxwell. Henry, von
Helmholtz, Hertz and J J Thomson.
Date
Experimenter
Commenhry
1650
Otto von Guericke
Conducted the first vacuum experiment and invented the first

air pump.
1140
Abbe Nollet
Guenckes pump together with facts accumulated by such as

Haukesbee, Gilbert and Hooke led him to interest himself i n
electricity which he considered to be a highly flammable fluid
capable of being set into flame. He used glass egg-shaped globes
in his experiments, more or less exhausted of air.
1834
W Snow Harris
No progress o c c m d for a centnry after Nollet until more

competent experimenters repeated his work. Snow pointed out
that the length of the spark which and elecrric machine will give
in air varies in the simple inverse ratio of the gas pressure.
1838
Michael Faraday
Investigated electric glow discharges with a considerably

modified electric eggdrawn out into a tube, closed at both ends
and more thoroughly exhausted of air.
1838
Heinrich Geissler
Improved methods of making glass tubes for electric discharge

studies and showed how to seal little platinum wires into their
closed ends. He also invented a special air pump for exhausting
these tubes. He observed an unilluminated space surrounding
the negafively charged electrode in almost every case This
dark space depended on various hctors. including the potential
difference between the electrodes. spark length of the coil and
degree of rarefaction.
1860
Kelvin, Rhumkorll
and others
1860
Gassiot
By 1860 the study of electric discharge had become important

Kelvin had introduced the absolute electrometer and the stratified
appearance in ceaain cases of the discharge glow had been
observed.
Set up 3520 water cells, to form the largest battery of its kind
ever made, and proved by its means that a vacuum tube placed
in circuit with the cells glowed distinctly with a stratified
appearance. This began the em when the Rhumkorff coil could
be replaced by cells.
1865
H e m Sprengel
1869
J o h n Hittarf
1879
Wtlliam Crookes
Invention of the Sprengel mercury air pump which had the

power to produce very high rarefactions with rapidity.
Conducted experiments under the now improved conditions using
the tube named after him.
Crookes made known the results of his work at the 1879 British
Association meeting.
somewhat out of character), by Wingirdh (1948) and quoted by R0nne and Nielsen (1986)
is I do not want to get involved in any thing that has to do with the properties of the tubes,
for these things are even more capricious and unpredictable than women.
3.3. Zntroduction of a metal target: March 1896
The first two major improvements in x-ray tube design were the introduction of a metal
target and the focus tube: see section 3.4. In England, Campbell Swinton (see figures 7 and
8) was given credit for this innovation by Gardiner (1909) writing in the Journal of The
Rontgen Society on The origin, history and development of the X-ray tube and referring
1764
R F Mould
Forms of tube used for the production of cathode and X rays

I. 2
Fiyre 19. Collection of 32 x-ray tubes owned by Gaston S e y y in November 1896, of which
three were designed by Crookes,two used (and possibly designed) by R6ntgen and 15 by Seguy
himself. They illustrate well the wide variety of designs and include cylindrical, pear-shaped
and spherical-shaped x-ray bulbs and bi-cathode tubes.
to the collection of tubes owned by the Society (now the British Institute of Radiology)
which in 1909 were handed over to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington.
Gardiner stated that Campbell-Swinton proposed this development in about March 1896
and figure 20 shows this tube in which the cathode rays are incident upon a small sheet of
platinum and not on the glass end of the tube.
1765
Figure 20. The first x-ray tube 10 use a metal target instead of the glass end of the tube.
Campbell-Swinton. March 1896 (see top left) (Gardiner 1909). This tube is in the collection
of the British Institute of Radiology (Mould 1979). The first anatomical radiograph taken in
the United Kingdom is seen top right: also by Campbell-Swinton, t t e n on 13 January 1896.
His earlier radiograph of various objects exposed through an aluminium screen is seen in figure
7. The bottom image is of a frog's foot and is the imaging test object used for the first
recorded x-ray tube manufacturer's survey: well before the modem interlaboratory comparisons
of imaging devices which are organized by medical physicists and clinicians for such as WHO
and IAEA (Souchkevitch et al 1988). In 1900 the then President of the Rantgen Society, Dr
John Macintyre, decided to offer a gold medal to the m&cr 'of the best practical X-ray tube
for both photographic and screen work'. The winning tube is shown centre right. A committee
of expens was formed to act as judges and same 28 hlbes were sent in to the Society. It was
recorded that 'There was a good deal of grumbling when the award was made to Mr C H F
Miiller of Hamburg' and that 'it was a pity that the very elaborate tests through which the tubes
were passed were not made public'. The x-ray plate (bottom) of the frog's foot (the hooked nail
at the tip of each toe was only one-tenth of a millimetre width) was the final test that decided
the award. The tube centre left was not relevant to this Gold Medal survey but is the electfie
discharge tube described by Sir William Crookes in 1874 and which has B curved cathode: see
figure 21 below.
1766
R F Mould
3.4. Thefocus tube: March 1896
Gardiner (1909) when commenting upon the Campbell-Swinton tube of figure 20

emphasized that had he also used a curved cathode he would have anticipated the focus tube
design of Herbert Jackson, Professor of Physics at Kings College, London, which marked
the greatest advance that has been made since Rontgens discovery 13 years previously.
Jacksons communication in the Electrical Review (London) (Jackson 1896) was on
13 March and was preceded by a 7 March announcement in the British Medical Journal,
(Thompson 1896, Phillips 1897, Brecher and Brecher 1969) but in America on 7 March,
Herbert B Schallenberger working in the Westinghouse laboratory had published in
Electrical World a picture of his own focus tube and insisted that he had first used a
similar tube as early as 15 February (Schallenberger 1896). The only difference between
the Jackson and Schallenberger focus tubes was the angulation of the platinum target-anode.
An example of a Jackson focus tube can be seen bottom right in the figure 16 (Ward 1896b)
advertisement. The focus tube number 8 in the S6guy (1896) collection of tubes in figure
19 differs from the original Jackson version only in the shape of the glass bulb.
However, in spite of the claims and counter claims both in 1896 and later, the real credit
for the design of the concave cathode lies not with Schallenberger or with as sometimes
stated Rontgen (since he mentioned his focus tube in his second communication) or Jackson,
or the American physicist Elihu Thomson whose 1896 focus tube is advertised at the top
of figure 17, but as indicated by Isenthal and Ward (1897) with Sir William Crookes, figure
21. Crookes had used this tube in 1879 to demonstrate the heating effect of cathode rays:
see also figure 20 (centre left).
3.5.Further mod@catons to x-rays tubes: 18%

1896 and the following years also saw many other modifications to the x-ray tube following
the metal target and concave cathode. However, by the mid-1920s the gas tube era was
over, because of the advent of the hot cathode or Coolidge tube in 1913, with its much
greater stability and the higher x-ray photon energies then possible, (see Coolidge (1913)
and Coolidge and Charlton (1933)).
For example, tube design was not limited to a single target, bianodal versions were
available and the double focus tube was designed to use an alternating discharge such as
that derived from Tesla coils (Isenthal and Ward 1898). Sliding cathodes were incorporated
in some designs, see bottom right in figure 16. Kathren (1978) in his historical review
records that in 1896 the rotating anode tube was introduced by Robert W Wood, a Johns
Hopkins University physicist, the Boston physicist John Trowbridge created an oil-immersed
x-ray tube, and in Philadelphia Lyman Sayen devised a self-regulating tube.
However, the term rotating anode used by Kathren (1978) referring to the work of
Wood (1896) would be better stated as the first attempt in x-ray tube design to obtain what
would later be achieved using a rotating anode. Glasser (1931, 1933) summarizes Woods
work as follows A disadvantage of the first tubes was the heating of the glass walls by the
cathode rays. This effect made it impossible to increase the load on the tube in order to
shorten the exposure time. In an effort-to avoid this heating effect and to distribute it over
a larger area of the glass, Wood (1896) suspended in the tube a concave cathode which
could be rotated on its axis like a pendulum. By turning the tube continuously during the
exposure, the focal point of the cathode rays always fell upon a different part of the glass
which was cool and thus the load on the tube could be increased considerably. This tube did
not find a ready market on account of its complicated construction but it was the predecessor
of modern [i.e. 1931119331 types of tubes which have rotating anodes or cathodes. This
1161
Figure 21. Crookes tube of 1879 with a concave cathode which predates the 1896 x-ray focus
tube cathodes of Jackson in England and Schallenberger in America.
1896 x-ray tube designed by Wood is illustrated in figure 19 as Number 4: the line drawing
on the far left of the second row of this collection of tubes owned by Gaston SBguy.
3.6. Vacuum regularion

Vacuum regulation was a problem with the gas tubes, since when the tube was operating the
vacuum would in general change, the gas pressure getting either higher or lower, depending
on the operating conditions and upon the past history of the tube. Coolidge and Charlton
(1933) detail some of the design factors to counteract these and other problems in the best
summary review I have encountered: reproduced below.
The pressure could usually be reduced by operating the tube intermittently with small
currents. However, when the pressure became too low, it could at first be raised by heating
the bulb but after a time this would fail and the tube would have to be rebuilt. The most
important step being the replacement of the aluminium cathode with a fresh one.
To prolong the useful life of the tube, various methods were devised for the introduction,
1768
R F Mould
when desired, of small amounts of gas. A common method consisted in the application of
heat to a suitable chemical placed in a side tube.
The Bauer valve was a very successful regulator and consisted of a small piece of
unglazed porcelain sealed into the tube envelope. This porcelain was normally covered by
liquid mercury which could be displaced at will by squeezing a rubber bulb, thus allowing
air from outside to diffuse through the pores of the porcelain into the tube.
The osmoregulator of Villard was also used extensively. This consisted of a tiny thinwalled tube of platinum or palladium closed at one end and sealed at the other to the
envelope of the tube. Upon heating the regulator with a Bunsen flame, hydrogen diffused
through the platinum or palladium into the tube.
Figure 22 shows three x-ray tubes with vacuum regulation manufactured by C H F
Muller of Hamburg before 1905. The small auxiliary bulbs for the regulation are clearly
seen, whereas in figure 19 for Sbguys collection of 32 tubes in 1896 there are none with
vacuum regulation.
3.7. Target design

For medical diagnostic work the thin metal target of the early tubes was rapidly replaced by
a heavy mass of metal consisting essentially of two parts, a refractory metal face to take the
impact of the cathode rays and a heavy back plate consisting of some good-heat-conducting
metal which would serve to lead away and temporarily store the heat liberated at the focal
spot. The metals were joined together by a brazing process.
Platinum and copper came into very general use for the refractory metal face and back
plate, respectively. Kaye (1909) had reported that metals of high atomic weight were the
most efficient x-ray generators and it was realized relatively soon that the following four
principal properties were required for the target material. (1) High atomic number: to give
best x-ray efficiency. (2) High melting point and (3) high thermal conductivity: to allow
maximum energies for a given focal spot size. (4) Low vapour pressure: to reduce the
amount of metal vapourized onto the glass walls. With ductile tungsten it was found that
the properties (1) to (4) were combined to the highest degree. However, this was right at
the end of the gas tube era and formed the last major advance in tube design.
3.8. Ancillary equipment
Ancillary equipment was required in addition to the x-ray tube and for example the 1896
advertisement in figure 17 shows induction coils and cells. These have been reviewed
elsewhere by Mould (1993) including induction coils, influence machines such as the
Wimshurst, mercury and electrolytic interrupters and the first interrupterless transformer
of Snook (Tyler 1919).
For a description of thelapparatus used by Rontgen, including a photograph of his
cylindrical ionization chamber with lead cap and aluminium entrance window, see Harder
(1987) in the review Rontgens discovery-how and why it happened.
For reviews of the technology of x-ray films, plates and fluorescent screens see Fuchs
(1933). Grigg (1965), Ramsey (1970, 1976), and Eisenberg (1992). It is also noted that
in most of the early textbooks, see table 4, there are relatively long sections on plates and
films, and for example Kassabian (1907) includes advice on the following: Developers:
formulas and variety; Modus operandi of development; Improvement of the negative;
Printing (positive): toning and mounting. Whereas Knox (1915) emphasizes that when
the print has been prepared it is necessary to glaze and mount it on a cardboard. Too great
stress cannot be put upon this part of the work. At this time, 1915, plate glass was still
Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 18954915

Table 4. Reference textbooks of the period 1897-1915.
Year
Authors. their profession and place of work
Title of textbook and commenmry
1897
David Walsh, dermatologisrlphysician

Lnndon and also Hon. Secretary of the
Riintgen Society
The Rontgen Rays in Medical Work. The

part of the book an Medical and surgical
applications was divided into eight sections:
Surgery;Dental surgery; Medicine, Obstetrics
and gynaecology; Legal medicine; Anatomy;
Physiology; Vetinary surgery.
1898
H Snowden Ward, photographer and
Praclicai Radiography (2nd edn). The chapter

on Diagnostical applications of radiography
was divided into Anatomy and pathology of
the osseous smctures and 'Internal medicine
softer tissues. (See table 1 for the 1896 1st
edn of this book.)
The Roentgen Rays in Medicine and S u q q
(2nd edn) (1st edn was in 1901). Chapter titles
include: Pneumonia; Emphysema of the lungs
and bronchitis; Pleurisy with effusion and
empyema; Hydrothorax and pneumothorax;
Heart;Thoracic aneurisms; Oesophagus.
abdomen and pelvis; Children; Surgery;
Fractures and dislocations; Foreign bodies;
Dental surgery; Calculi: Medico-le@ uses.
A W Isenthal. manufacturer of
x-ray equipment, London
1902
Francis Williams, physician, Boston, USA
1904
Carl Beck. surgeon, New York. USA
1904
William Pusey, dermatologist, University

of Illinois and Eugene Caldwell, x-ray
laboratory director. New York, USA
1907
Mihran Kassabian, physician,

Philadelphia. USA
1915
Robert Knox,radiologist and radiotherapist,

Royal Cancer Hospital. London
Rontgen Roy Diagnosis and Therapy. The

part Regionary (Clinical) includes: Head:
Neck; Chest; Abdomen; Pelvis; Shoulder;
Malformations: Diseases of bones and joints;
Neoplasms; Fractures; Medico-legal.
Rontgen Rays in Therapeutics and Diagnosis.
Diagnosis chapters am fluoroscopy and
radiography. Mare text for therapy than for
diagnosis and these include: Treatment of
X-ray b u m ; Diseases of skin appendages;
Inflammatory diseases of skin; Treatment
of tubemdosis; Skin cancer; Cancer of the
breast and in the thorax: Deep-seated cancer;
Sarcoma. (See Mould (1993, 199%) for a
review of the early years of radiotherapy with
illustrations of apparatus.)
Rontgen Rays ond Electro-rherapeurics.
Chapters include: Fractures and dislocations;
Diseases of the osseous system; Localisation
of foreign bodies (including Military surgery);
Thorax; Abdomen: Genito-urinary; Dentistry;
Forensic medicine.
Radiography, X-ray 73hempeutics and Radium
Therapy. This was one of last major textbooks
of the gas X-ray tube era before the Coolidge
hot cathode tubes came into routine use
worldwide. Chapters include: Injuries of
bones and joints; Diseases of bone and joints;
Thorax; Alimenmry system; Urinay tract;
Congenital malformations.
1169
1770
R F Mould
Figure 22. (a) Miiller vacuum regulated x-ray tubes advertised in the 1905 Journnl of the
R?intzen Sociely. The tube in the centre is also described in detail by Pusey and Caldwell(1904)
and Kassabian (1901) and appear to be, with the Queen and Company of Philadelphia selfregulating tube, see also figure 23, devised by Lyman Sayen in 1896. the most papular designs
of the early yean of the 2Mh century. The design OD far left incorporates a water-cooled anode.
(b) Schematic diagram of the central Muller x-ray tube (Kassabian 1907). The lever shown
hanging vertically in (a), but hon-rontally in (b), from the auxiliary bulb B regulates the interval
of the spark-gap (between E and K-). The more distant the lever from the cathode K- of the main
tube. the higher the vacuum in that tube and the nearer the cathode K- the lower the vacuum.
Should the resistance of the main tube be in excess of that of the spark-gap, the current takes
the path of lesser resistance and passes through the auxiliary bulb, and the presence of sparks
in the spark-gap shows that the process is proceeding. Should the vacuum of the main tube
become too low (soft), the wire (between Ct and the target) is disconnected from the anode of
the main tube and attached to the terminal of the electrode (I+) in the auxiliary chamber and
the wire E is moved far away. The discharge that pvsres under chis adjustment causes metallic
particles from Jc to he driven against thc sides of the tube and the generation of more gas
to be occluded on the auxiliary elcctrode. In this way the vacuum of the main tube may be
raised. The process required some five minutes and might have to be repeated. To lower the
vacuum use is made of electrode C which contains a substance which will give off a certain
quantity of gas by the electnc discharge passing through it and hence lower the vacuum. That
such complicated procedures were necessary during this period when there wvs still no accurate
method of measuring the degree of hardness (penetration) or exposure dose m k e s one realize
the great advance that occurred when in 1913 the Coolidge hot-cathode x-ray tube was devised
and haw difficult must have been any physicists' life when he attempted any quality control (see
figure 23) or radiation dosimetry,

J+
1771
Figure 22. (Continued)
in use and for prints the advice was given that they should be previously well hardened in
alum or formalin.
4. Diagnostic radiology physics

4.1. Reference books: 1897-1915
The textbooks of 1896 gave very little detail on the applications of x-rays in diagnostic
radiology, or rather radiography (or skiagraphy) and radioscopy, and therefore the source
books for this review section commence in 1897. Table 4 lists the major references I have
used for the period under review which ends in 1915. Also for interest I have listed the
professions of the authors of these standard texts of the period. It is noticeable that they
include no physicists: I am afraid that the physicist, when involved in a book, was usually
only limited to writing a technical chapter and it was some years before books written solely
by a physicist, or with a physicist as a co-author (except for Phillips (1897)) were to be
published. Some of the earliest were the 1929 book on The Physics of X-ray Therapy
by Professor Val Mayneord of The Royal Cancer Hospital, London, and in 1915 Professor
Sidney Russ of the Middlesex Hospital, London, who with Colwell wrote Radium, X-rays
and the Living Cell, which was also one of the first books containing a significant amount
of radiation biology.
Returning to table 4, the massive 704 page and 410 illustrations book of Williams
(1902) details very well in its chapter titles the range of medical applications of x-rays in
this earlier period. It is also interesting to note the inclusion of chapters on medico-legal
matters, the full title of which in Williams (1902) is Usefulness of X-ray examinations to
life insurance companies. Medico-legal uses of the X-rays.
In Walsh (1897) the section on legal medicine includes Evidence of injury and
Evidence in action for malpractice. In the former he quotes the British Medical Journal of
6 June 1896 where x-ray evidence was presented in a court when a bullet in a hand formed
the subject of criminal prosecution.
In the malpractice text Walsh (1897) quotes a Dr Richardson in the Boston Medical
News of 19 December 1896; Indeed, an early fluoroscopic examination of every fracture
may be required of every surgeon for the protection of the patient, and an early photograph
for the protection of the surgeon.
1772
R F Mould
Many textbooks of this era were subdivided into apparatus and technique, and then
followed on with medical applications, concentrating on clinical details. Since this is a
review with emphasis on physics contributions, that is on the aspects of technique which
were considered of importance in 1896-1915, table 4 provides a summary of the clinical
applications.
For further reading the following textbooks are recommended: Bruwer (1964), Grigg
(1965), British Institute of Radiology (1973). Burrows (1986). Pallardy et af (1989),
Eisenberg (1992) and Mould (1993).
4.2. Hard, medium and soji x-ray quality: 1900
The early description of quality was the qualitative scale of hard, medium and soft, which
was proposed by Kienbock (1900) and which continued in use in many centres to the end
of the gas x-ray tube era. Kienbock actually also included very soft and very hard in a
five-point scale but this was almost always used only as a three-point scale.
One earlier classification existed, but was not widely used. This was the 1898 proposal
by a Dr Porter, referred to by Valenta, who with Eder from the Imperial & Royal Graphical
Institute, which was a training school for photographers in Vienna, where the first ever
patient was treated therapeutically (Mould 1995a), produced in 1896 the first album of
radiographs of small mammals, cameos and other objects. These radiographs are notable
for their excellent image quality and one of the few existing albums can be seen in Rontgens
original laboratory in the former Physical Institute of the University of Wiirzburg, (Eder
and Valenta 1896).
The Porter definitions, quoted by Kassabian (1907) were as follows. XI-rays penetrate
the soft parts easily but the bones with difficulty. Xz-rays those absorbed by the soft tissues.
Xs-rays those readily penetrating both soft tissues and bone. As an aside, logically XI and
Xz should be reversed to give a numerical correlation of the X subscript with absorption,
but in 1896 I wonder if XI was defined first because it was for the most diagnostically
useful x-ray category.
Such scales were impossible to use for standardization, particularly as the behaviour of
the tubes was so variable. Also, these qualitative assessment were dependent upon the eye,
which apart from radiation hazards, not always recognized, led to further variability.
4.3. Visual quality control: 1904

One of the earliest quality control measurements consisted of visually looking at the colour
of the glass bulb when the x-rays were being produced. Figures 23(a)-(d) illustrate four
conditions of the Queen and Company, Philadelphia, self-regulating x-ray tube previously
mentioned in the caption to figure 22(a).
These four colour photographs were previously reproduced in both Pusey and Caldwell
(1904) and in Kassabian (1907). Figure 23(a) shows the tube operating properly and figure
23(b) what happens if by mistake the tube has been connected with the wrong poles of the
exciting apparatus and the current is running in the reverse direction. This situation tended
to blacken the glass bulb with a fine deposit of metal thrown off from the electrodes and
making it subject to very sudden and erratic fluctuations in resistance (and hence degree of
hardness).
The appearance of a low vacuum is shown in figure 23(c) and in figure 23(d) the
appearance is that which occurs a short time after the bulb has been punctured or cracked
and hence is partially filled with air. Pusey and Caldwell(l904) remark that after puncturing
a series of beautiful effects will be observed until finally the bulb is full of air and sparks
pass between the electrodes.
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4.4. Chiroscopes and Osteoscopes: 1903-4
The first radiation physics phantoms to be used consisted basically of skeleton hands and
forearms, of which the first was the Chiroscope (Mould 1980) which was exhibited at a
meeting of the Rontgen Society in May 1903.
It was reported at this meeting that Almost every worker with X-rays has to use the
fluorescent screen very frequently in order to test the conditions of his tube by reference to
a shadow of his own hand. This process has so often to be gone through that most workers
have had to suffer from more or less acute inflammation of the skin of their hands. To
obviate this is the function of the Chiroscope. This insInunent consists of an articulated
skeleton hand suitably mounted behind a small fluorescent screen, which is to serve as a
test object. The fleshy parts of the hand are represented by suitably cut-out tin foil, and the
whole is mounted on a holder, the construction of which affords protection to the hand of
the operator.
The Osteoscope shown in figures 24(a) and @) is a similar instrument, devised by
Beck (1904) using a bony skeleton hand, forearm and elbow joint. Beck hoped that its use
would limit the number of wrinkled and shrivelled Rontgen hands of physicians. However
Kassabian (1907) comments that the Osteoscope is injurious to the eye, no matter how well
the latter is protected with lead (flint) glasses.
4.5. Radiochromators, chromoradiometers, quantimeters and pastilles: 1902-5
These quantitative measuring instruments were a great improvement on visual qualitative

assessment and were used not only in diagnostic radiology but also in radiotherapy (Mould
1993, 1995a). Only a selection is described here because many designs were produced and
sold commercially but intercomparison was virtually impossible because of the plethora of
radiation units used which almost covered the entire alphabet, using both lower case and
capital letters!
However, the most frequently used units of the early years were the pastille or B-unit
of Sabouraud and Noir.5 (1904), the X-unit of Kienbock (1905), the H-unit of Holzknecht
(1902) and the skin erythema dose, the SED or HED. Eventually these were all rendered
obsolete when the roentgen was accepted internationally as a unit of quantity of radiation,
but that was not until 1928 at Stockholm at the 2nd International Congress of Radiology.
Chemical colour change following irradiation formed the basis of several units. For
example, the pastille of 1904 which was used well into the 1930s, was based on the use
of a small capsule of platinobarium cyanide and was purchased in small booklets: which
were called radiometers. There were two standard tints, A for unexposed and B for the
standard epilation dose. The H-unit of 1902 used a fused mixture of potassium chloride and
sodium carbonate. The Holzknecht chromoradiometer was equipped with a scale and in a
comparison by Schall (1932) it was stated that the epilation dose was 1.ZB which equalled
6H and that the erythema dose was 2.5B which equalled 12H. However, in practice, these
units were used by individual physicians and any meaningful comparison was impossible;
this was demonstrated by Colwell and Russ (1915) who conducted a dosimetry survey in
1911 of 13 radiologists of repute. They entitled their report Idiosyncracy and dosage to
emphasize the then current problems, which were not to be fully overcome until 1937 when
the roentgen was accepted as a unit for both x-rays and gamma-rays.
Photographic film blackening was another radiation effect upon which a dose unit was
based: the X-unit of Kienbock (1905). Small strips of film, known as Kienbock strips, were
exposed on the patients skin and the density of the developed film was compared to an
a r b i t r q scale of blackening using an instrument called a quantimeter. Photographic film
1115
Figure 24. The Osteoscope is shown in full detail in (a) and in use by Professor of Surgery,
New York Past-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, Carl Beck (1904) in (b) which he gave
the caption 'Controlling the vacuum by the Osteoscope during exposure'.
blackening had in fact been proposed earlier by William Rollins (1902) the Boston x-ray
engineer who worked closely with Francis Williams (1902): but in this case the proposal
was for its use as a radiation protection standard.
Other radiation effects upon which units of dose were based besides silver bromide film,
1176
R F Mould
chemical colour change and skin erythema included fluorescence, temperature variation,
x-ray tube current, heating (ergs ~ m - ~ change
),
in electrical resistance of a layer of selenium
and ionization. For a detailed description of more than 50 such units which were proposed
for x-rays and gamma-rays prior to 1937 are given by Mould (1980, 1993).
Instrumentation was developed not only for the measurement of dose in such as X and
H units but also for the measurement of radiation quality in the period before the proposal
by the Swiss physicisdphysician Christen (1912) of the concept of half-value-layer, after
which many of the earlier methods fell into disuse.
One of the earliest of these penetrameters, which was a significant improvement on
the qualitative assessment of hard, medium or soft, was by Benoist (1902). It consisted
of a thin disc of silver surrounded by 12 aluminium steps of increasing thickness. When
the Benoist radiochromometer was placed behind a fluorescent screen the luminosity of the
central silver circle was compared with the steps of the aluminium ladder. Soft x-rays were
steps 2 or 3 and hard x-rays steps 7 or 8. As a quality control test object it bears a striking
similarity to some of the phantoms used today in diagnostic radiology.
Many different metals have been used to determine the penetrative power of xrays and for example Pusey and Caldwell (1904) state the following. The platinumaluminium window of Rontgen is the only means which has been suggested for accurately
measuring and standardising the penetrating quality of the X-rays. This window was
described (but not illustrated) in Rontgens third communication (1897): A rectangular
piece 4 cm x 6.5 cm of platinum foil of 0.0026 mm thickness, which is cemented to a thin
paper screen, and through which are punched 15 round holes arranged in three rows, each
hole having a diameter of 0.7 cm. These little windows are covered by panes of aluminium
0.0299 mm thick which fit exactly and are superimposed in such a way that at the 1st
window there is one disc and at the 15th window there are 15 discs. If this arrangement is
brought in front of the fluorescent screen, it may be observed very plainly, in case the tubes
are not too hard, how many aluminium sheets have the same transparency as the platinum
foil. The number will be called the window number. Credit for this particular work of
Rontgen (1897) was hardly ever given in the textbooks of 190&15. Figure 25 shows a
skiameter based on this principle taken from Kassabian (1907).
Figure 25. Skiameter used to measure the penetrative power of x-rays (Kawbian 1907).
Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 189s-1915
1777
4.6. Ionization unit of Villard: 1908

A unit based on ionization, the liberation of 1 esu of charge per cc, was proposed by Villard
(1908) as the e-unit and although this was later modified by Behnken (1924, 1927) to become
the German roentgen (R) unit, it formed the basis of roentgen unit which was revised in 1937
at the 5th International Congress of Radiology, Chicago, for both x and gamma radiation:
The quantity of X or gamma radiation such that the associated corpuscular emission per
0.001293 gram of air produces in air ions carrying 1 esu of charge of either sign.
4.7. Gold leaf and tin foil electroscopes: 1896 and 1904
The earliest measuring device for x-rays which gained widespread use was the gold leaf
electroscope which even in the mid-1930s was still being used in some hospitals as a
survey meter for the detection of lost radium sources. Based on the same principal, Pusey
and Caldwell (1904) described a tin foil electroscope with the two strips 0.75 wide and 5
length for indicating the potential at the terminal of a Crookes tube for the specific reason
that although Testing the tube by observing the shadows of the hand is very convenient,
hut it is not to be recommended for the reason that the back of the hand is very sensitive to
the X-rays and bums are perhaps more liable in this area than any other part of the body.
An enormous number of different designs of ionization measuring instruments have
been developed over the years for the measurement of x-rays and gamma-rays and as early
as 3 February 1896, Benoist and Hurmuzescu (1896) presented to the Paris Academy of
Sciences their observations on the discharge of a gold leaf electroscope by x-rays, figure 26.
They noticed that placing a thin aluminium sheet which was connected to earth between
the x-ray tube and electroscope did not change the phenomenon and from this they deduced
that this method also permitted the measurement of the absorption of various substances to
x-rays.
Figure 26. Experimentd arrangement of Benoist and Hurmuzeescu in 1896 to study the ionization
in air produced by x-rays. The gold leaf electroscope is seen at the centre of the drawing.
1778
R F Mould
4.8. Ionization experiments of J J Thomson: 1896
A few days later on 13 February, J J Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge,

UK, spoke before the Royal Society on his studies of the ionizing effect of x-rays. However,
his first publication on the subject was in a letter to The Electrician dated 4 February and
published 7 February 1896, and reproduced below (Thomson 1896).
Those of your readers who are making experiments on Rontgens rays may perhaps
be interested in a method of testing their presence which is more delicate and expeditious
than the photographic plate, and also more easily adapted to quantitative measurements.
It is simply a charged insulated metal plate.. . I have found that when this is exposed to
Rontgens rays it rapidly loses its charge, and the test is so delicate that I have by this means
been able to detect the rays after their passage through a zinc plate one-fourth inch thick.
The leakage caused by these rays differs materially from that investigated by Elster and
Geitel and due to ultra-violet light. In the first place, the Rontgen rays discharge positive
as well as negative electricity, and secondly, the leakage goes on even when the electrified
plate is embedded in paraffin, ebonite, mica, sulphar, etc. This shows that all substances
through which the Rontgen rays are passing become for the time conductors of electricity.
This result seems to me very suggestive both as to the nature of the rays and also the
conduction through the insulator.
Thomson published further work on this subject for which his most important publication
in 1896 was with Ernest Rutherford, entitled On the passage of electricity through gases
exposed to Rontgen rays.
4.9. Free-air ionization chamber: 1896
In November 1896 Jean PemninParis published a drawing of the principal of a free-in-air

chamber (figure.27) and listed all the essential elements of an experimental arrangement
with the legend Luftkondensator zur Bestimmung des durch Ionisation versursachten
Elektrozit2tsverlustes und damit der Intensitat der ionisierenden Rontgenstrahlen (Pychlau
1983). It was, though, to be many years before a practical free-air chamber was achieved.
4.10. Ionization measurements by the 1920s
This review ends in 1915 and but because by that time very little had been achieved
in the development of ionization chambers I have arbitrarily extend this section to the
1920s because of the importance of ionization measurements. Many useful designs of
ionization chambers and electrometers, such as the Wulf electrometer described by Kronig
and Freidrich (1922), were eventually available and Peter Pychlau (1983) of the company
FTW-Freiburg which still manufactures ionization chamber dosemeters vividly describes
the start in Germany of the time when ionization chambers became practical.
Measurement of ionising rays using ionisation chambers means measuring small
electrical flows or charge quantities. To illustrate the difficulties encountered in making the
necessary electrical measuring instruments, one should bear in mind that it was not possible
until the first decade of this century to go to a shop and just buy resistors, capacitors, plugs,
switches or voltage sources.
On 22 December 1920 the main radio station at Konigs Wusterhausen near Berlin,
broadcast the first wireless concert. From then on radio sets were manufactured by amateurs
and commercially. Broadcasting for the first time created a market demand for radioelectrical components. Up to then these components were manufactured more or less
independently in each laboratory and it took a long time before these components were
available as standard equipment.
1779
au sol
Figure 27. Illustration of the principal of the free-air ionization chamber by Pemn. dated
November 1896.
4.11. Work of a physicist by the 1920s
As a follow-on from the previous section on ionization measurements and for comparison
with section 2.7 which describes the work of a hospital physicist 1895-97, figure 28 is
included because this is probably the earliest existing photograph of a working physicist
making ionization measurements. It is not in diagnostic radiology, because it was to be many
years before physicists were routinely involved in this area, except for radiation protection
work, and many years before quality assurance and quality control in radiodiagnosis formed
part of their daily work, (e.g. Souchkevith er a1 1988).
The first hospital physicists, which in England were Russ at the Middlesex HospitaI and
Hopwood at St Bartholomew's Hospital in the 1910s. followed by such as Mayneord at the
Royal Cancer Hospital in the 1920s, started with one-man departments and were almost
exclusively working in x-ray therapy, radium therapy and radiation protection. Figure 28
(Union Minsre du Haut Katanga 1929) shows a physicist making 'space measurements'
of 'energy distribution within an irradiated region' for a radium bomb unit designed by the
Belgians Sluys and Kessler (1925). A spherical aluminium ionization chamber of size 2 cm
is being used. For the measurements the ionization chamber was placed in a fixed position
and the teleradium unit (which had 13 radium foci) moved relative to the chamber.
The seven chapters of the first radiation physics textbook to be actually written by
a hospital physicist (Mayneord 1929) shows clearly the work of that time, but also
indicates that education and training (of physicians, radiographers and other physicists)
was considered of importance from the basic physics included. [I] Discovery and general
properties of X-rays. [2] Radiations from an X-ray tube. [3] X-rays and matter. [4] X-ray
absorption. [5]X-ray measurements. [6] Important factors affecting choice of therapeutic
conditions. [7] X-ray apparatus.
4.12. Fluoroscopes and photofluoroscopes: 1896-1902
The earliest construction for a fluoroscope was a simple cylindrical cardboard tube about
15-20 cm in length, which is closed at one end by a piece of cardboard covered by barium
1780
R F Mould
Figure 28. Physicist making ionization chamher measurements in the 1920s for a radium bomb
machine (Union Minibre du Haut Katanga 1929).
platino-cyanide (Thompson 1896, Glasser 1933) as used by Paul Spiess of the Urania
Society, Berlin and reported on 27 February 1896 and by Enrico Salvioni of Perugia, Italy.
The first photofluoroscope was also devised in Italy, by J Mount Bleyer of Naples in 1896,
figure 29.
Figure 29. The Bieyer photofluoroscope (Thompson 1R96). It was used as early as I April
1896 and reported both in the Elecrricol Ennyinetr and the proceedings of the RoyolAcodemy of
Medicine andSuryery ofNop1e.y. The fluoroscope was termed a 'flaring skiascope' 10 differentiate
it from the cylindrical tube version. Bleyer eventually moved to New York and worked s a
laryngologist (Gngg 1986).
1781
The fluoroscopes of Spies and Salvioni were essentially only to demonstrate the effects
of the x-rays rather than to visualize anatomy such as the hand. It was therefore rapidly
modified to the truncated pyramid shape shown being held by Thomas Edison in 1896 in
figure 11 and in figure 30 being used by Francis Williams (1902). physician at the Boston
City Hospital, for examination of the thorax.
4.13. Densitometer: 1902
Densitometers, either manual or automatic, are most familiar to physicists of today and it
is therefore of interest to note figure 31, from Williams (1902), which he describes in the
following manner.
I designed this instrument, to which I have given the name of densitometer, in order to
measnre the density of any part of the thorax, and I chose water as a means of measurement,
because this liquid is most akin to the soft tissues of the body, they being chiefly made up
of it, as well as to the pathological deposits in the lungs.
It consists of an oval box with two bottoms, and is divided into halves, A and B, by
a partition that reaches nearly to the false bottom. The sides of this box and the partition
are made of copper. The top and both bottoms of thin sheets of aluminium. The half A is
closed above and is supplied with a stopcock and a rubber tube: the half B is covered with
a lid. Between the two bottoms are placed pieces of two or three ribs, or pieces of ivory
corresponding in density to the ribs may be used.
The stopcock of A is closed and water poured into B until it is nearly filled. Stopcock
in A is then opened and water flows under the partition and rises into this half. This so
prepared instrument is then placed close beside the patients chest, between it and the arm.
While the chest is examined on the fluorescent screen, the water level in B is changed
as desired by blowing air into A or sucking air out of A. When the shadows of the ribs
in the body and in the densitometer are equally dark, and the light on the portion of the
fluorescent screen over B corresponds to the light on the portion of the screen over the
thorax, the stopcock is closed, the lid is opened. The depth of water is read off in cm and
the density of the lungs in a patient can thus be measured.
4.14. X-ray tube protection: 1902-15
X-ray tube protection was non-existent in most centres for many years, and even if some
protection procedure was recommended, such as the use of the osteoscope (Beck 1904).
figure 24, the x-ray tube was totally unshielded. The use of the protective box by Williams
(1902), figure 30, was therefore relatively unusual for the period 1900-5.
Later, more sophisticated tube shields and diaphragms became available as seen, figure
32, from the advertisement from a 1909 issue of the Journal of The Rontgen Sociery for
equipment manufactured by Alfred Dean of London.
By 1915 iris diaphragms were incorporated into the protective tube holder, or tube
box as it was then often termed, by several manufacturers and special couches for use with
overcouch and undercouch tubes were available, as were vertical screening stands. In figure
33 reproduced from Knox (1915), a plan for a consultins room or hospital outfit is shown
to conclude this review for the first 20 years of diagnostic radiology. It clearly indicates the
tube stand, x-ray couch and upright screening apparatus. The x-ray tube rack indicated at
one comer of the room was an essential in the gas tube era since a selection of tubes was
essential because of the varying degrees of hardness with time of any single tube and also
because they were fragile and easily broken.
1782
R F Mould
Figure 30. Francis Williams of Roston VAL< one of the foremost pioneers of diagnostic radiology
and. for example, used U protective housing for the x-ray tuhe much earlier than many of his
colleagues. He also combined this with a diaphragm which was unusual, in that many physicians
and surgeons used neither a diaphragm or a tuhe housing. This Williams' photograph (1902)
was captioned as follows: 'The patient is seated in a revolving chair which has a leather hack
through which the rays can pass. The tube is in the box seen on the kfi. The aluminium
screen which belongs in front of the bar: has been removed. The practitioner is so seated that
he can control with his "ght hand the length of the spark-gap.the amount of the condenser. and
the speed of the commutator and therefore vary the light to suit his needs as the examination
proceeds'
Figure 31. The thorax densitometer of Williams (1902).
DEAN'S
1783
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Figure 32. X-ray tube protection in 1909.
5. Truly the 'electric egg' has been hatched

Reviewing in a limited number of pages the contributions of physics and engineering to
the first 20 years of diagnostic radiology can only provide the reader with a selection of
highlights from a specialty only born in November 1895 and therefore with the foundations
to be laid for virtually all aspects of this medical science during the period under review.
I apologize in advance if I have omitted mention of the contribution of someone's
favourite physicist (Rutherford or Bragg?), favourite apparatus (stereoscopes?) or favourite
application (location of foreign bodies?) but I hope there is something of interest to all
and that the necessity for physics is very apparent in these early years: although I suspect
that the names of many of the individual physicists is now lost in history or within the
1784
R F Mould
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1785
Figure 34. Rantgen photographed by Hanfstaengl of Frankfun-an-Main and used a~the

frontispiece for the Thompson (1896) textbook.
acknowledgments sections of the x-ray reference books which were mainly written by
physicians or surgeons.
The first British hospital physicist, Charles Phillips entitled his pre-Rontgen historical
review Retrospect and referring to Abbe Nollet, concluded with the words Truly the
electric egg has been well hatched!. I can d o not better than Phillips in 1897 than to
end with the same words, which are just as appropriate in November 1995 and with a
photograph signifying the start of diagnostic radiology. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen taken in
1896, figure 34.
References
Beck C 1904 Rdntgen Roy Diagnosis and Therapy (New York:Appleton)
Rehnken H 1924 Die Eichung yon Dosismessern in der Physikalisch-Technischen Reichanstalt Fonrchritte Geb.
Riintginstrohlen 31 479
- 1927 The German unit of X-radiation Br. J. Rodiol. (R6nrgen Sociery Section) 23 72
Benoist L 1902 Expenmental definition of vxiaus types of X-rays by the radiochromator C. R. Acad. Sci. Puns
134 225
Benoist L and Humuzescu D 1896 New propetties of the X-rays C. R . Acad. Sci. Pnrir 122 235
Brecher R and Brecher E 1969 The Rays. A History o f R d i o b g y in the United States ond Canada (Baltimore, MD:
Williams and Wilkins)
British Institute of Radiology 1973 Issue to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the British Institute of Radiology Br.
J. Radiol. 46 739-931
Bruwer A J (ed) 1964 Closric Descriptions in Diagnostic Roentgenology vols 1 and 2 (Springfield, IL: Charles C
Thomas)
B u r E H 1986 Pioneers and Early Years. A History of British Radiology (Alderney: Colophon)
Colwell H A and Russ S 1915 Radium,X-rays and the Living Cell (London: G Bell and Sons)
1786
R F Mould
Campbell-Swmton A A 1905 Some exly radiograms I . R6nIgen Soc. 2 11-2

Chnstcn Th 1912 Absolulc mevuremenr for quality for ROntgen nyys md i s use in ROntgen thenpy V h . Drsch
RZtgcngss. 13 I19
Coolidge W D 1913 A powerful mntgen ray lube wlh a pure e l m " discharge P h p Ret,. 2 409
Coolidge W D md Charlton E E 1933 Roentgen-ra) tubes Science of Radiology ed 0 Glasser (London: Baillifre
Tindall and Cox) pp 77-96
Dirtmu A 1896 Pmferror ROnlgen'S X-rays and Their Appiicorionr in the .Vew Photography (Glasgos:
Bauurmeister)
Eder J M and Valent3 E 1896 Verruche Gbberphorogrophie mifrelrtder R"n~gen'sche~i
srrahlen YO" regierungsmth
(Vienna. Lecher)
Eisenberg R 1992 Predeccsson of Roentgen Radiology on lllusfrofedH~sror~
(St Louis: Mosby) pp 3-21
Feather N (ed) 1958 X-rays ond rhe Elecrric Conductitir) of Cases, Comprising Papers by W C RCnrgen (1895Alembic Club Reprint No 22 (Edinburgh: Li\ingstonc)
18961, I J Thomson and ER1~rherford(l896)
Fuchs A W 1933 Ridiognphic rccording media and screens The Soence of Radiology ed 0 Classer (London:
Baillien: Tmdall and Cox) pp 97-1 19
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Phys. Med. Biol. 40 (1995) 1741-1787.

The early history of x-ray diagnosis with emphasis on the

@ 1995 IOP Publishing Ltd

3.3. Introduction of a metal target: March 1896

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

On 1 January 1896 Rontgen wrote to scientific colleagues in several countries enclosing

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

Physics contribuiions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

2.3. Rontgens communication with Schuster: January 1896

Figure 6. Skull with B bullet placcd inside, for use es

test object by Sir Anhur Schuster,

2.4. Lecture-demonstrations: 1896

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

2.5. Textbooks: 1896

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

Surgical applications are by far the most important up to the present.

mainly radiographs but also a photograph of Mortons laboratory in which simultaneous

Soutk~ort$0ch1 Phobgaaphfc Club.

D w n open af pp. Conwurre a1 8.

SECOND SEATS, 1s.

Cnar. Ha. Lc..

Figure 9. Advertisement form 1896 lecture on x-rays.

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

Figure 10. Henry J Monan's New York x-ray laboratory in 1896.

Figure 11. The Ediaon rkrarcope or 1896.

sharpness of the image.

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

Ewperiments with spark gap

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

2.8. Advertisements: 1896

22, GARRICK ST., LONDON, W.C.

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

PROF. E. THOMSON'S FOCUS TUBES,

NEWTON'S FOCUS TUBES,

Fiuoroseopes and Fluorrecent Solfa.

Illus-blowhp door 10 Order.

205. 207, 208. 2 I I Thlrd Avenue, New York.

Complete X-Ray Apparatus.

STREET, NEW YORK,

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

Otto von Guericke

Conducted the first vacuum experiment and invented the first

Guenckes pump together with facts accumulated by such as

No progress o c c m d for a centnry after Nollet until more

Investigated electric glow discharges with a considerably

Improved methods of making glass tubes for electric discharge

By 1860 the study of electric discharge had become important

Invention of the Sprengel mercury air pump which had the

Forms of tube used for the production of cathode and X rays

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

3.4. Thefocus tube: March 1896

Gardiner (1909) when commenting upon the Campbell-Swinton tube of figure 20

3.5.Further mod@catons to x-rays tubes: 18%

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 1895-1915

3.6. Vacuum regularion

3.7. Target design

Physics contributions in x-ray diagnosis 18954915

Authors. their profession and place of work

Title of textbook and commenmry

David Walsh, dermatologisrlphysician

The Rontgen Rays in Medical Work. The