How did wilhelm röntgen die

To the casual observer, the X-ray of a hand, seen below, appears unremarkable. However, it is in fact the world's first X-ray taken of a human, in December - and belongs to the wife of the man who accidentally changed the face of medical diagnosis. Such was the shock Anna Bertha Roentgen felt upon seeing the skeletal picture of her left hand, complete with wedding and engagement rings, that she exclaimed: 'I have seen my death.

On November 8 that year, her husband, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, had been conducting an experiment in his lab - the effects of passing an electrical current through gases at low pressure - when something caught his eye. The first ever X-ray taken of a human above, on December 22, was the left hand, complete with wedding and engagement rings, of Anna Bertha Roentgen - the wife of the man who accidentally discovered a form of radiation that would change the face of medicine.

Pictured left is Anna Bertha. In November , German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen right, circa was conducting an experiment in his lab when he noticed that photographic plates near his equipment had started to glow. This would lead to his eureka moment and the discovery of X-rays - the 'x' indicating that they were of an unknown type.

Then aged 50, Roentgen had discovered a new kind of ray: X-radiation, which is composed of X-rays and is a form of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation. Although some labelled the beams Roentgen rays, he preferred the term X-rays. Roentgen, a professor of physics at Wurzburg University, in Bavaria, realised the phenomenon was due to strange beams being emitted by a glass tube he was using during his investigation.

Some of the rays were penetrating solid objects and exposing sheets of photographic paper, creating shadowy images.

Wilhelm roentgen wife hand

Above, left, an X-ray of his wife's hand; right, one of the first X-rays taken in the UK, of a woman's hand with ring, bracelet and chain of keys circa Roentgen, a professor of physics at Wurzburg University, in Bavaria, realised that the phenomenon was due to strange beams being emitted by a glass tube he was using during his investigation.

As electricity passed between two electrodes in the tube, the rays had an effect on the photographic plates. It was his eureka moment.