INTRODUCTION-RADIOLOGY.pdf

INTRODUCTION : He was born to of World War I changed his plans. He remained in Munich for the rest of his Friedrich Conrad Röntgen, a German career. merchant and cloth manufacturer, a...

INTRODUCTION : He was born to of World War I changed his plans. He remained in Munich for the rest of his Friedrich Conrad Röntgen, a German career. merchant and cloth manufacturer, and Charlotte Constanze Frowein. When he was Discovery of X-rays aged three, his family moved to the During 1895, at his laboratory in the Netherlands, where his mother's family Würzburg Physical Institute of the University lived. Röntgen attended high school at of Würzburg, Röntgen was investigating the Utrecht external effects of passing an electrical TechnicalSchoolin Utrecht, Netherlands. He discharge through various types of vacuum followed courses at the Technical School for tube equipment—apparatuses from Heinrich almost two years. In 1865, he was unfairly Hertz, Johann Hittorf, William expelled from high school when one of his Crookes, Nikola Tesla and Philipp von teachers intercepted a caricature of one of Lenard In early November, he was repeating the teachers, which was drawn by someone an experiment with one of Lenard's tubes in else. which a thin aluminium window had been Without a high school diploma, Röntgen added to permit the cathode rays to exit the could only attend university in the tube but a cardboard covering was added to Netherlands as a visitor. In 1865, he tried to protect the aluminium from damage by the attend Utrecht University without having the strong electrostatic field that produces the necessary credentials required for a regular cathode rays. student. Upon hearing that he could enter Röntgen knew that the cardboard covering the Federal Polytechnic prevented light from escaping, yet he Institute in Zürich (today known as the ETH observed that the invisible cathode rays Zurich), he passed the entrance examination caused a fluorescent effect on a small and began his studies there as a student cardboard screen painted with barium of mechanical engineering. In 1869, he platinocyanide when it was placed close to graduated with a PhD from the University of the aluminium window. It occurred to Zurich; once there, he became a favourite Röntgen that the Crookes–Hittorf tube, student of Professor August Kundt, whom he which had a much thicker glass wall than the followed to the newly founded Lenard tube, might also cause this German Kaiser-Wilhelms- Universität in Strasbourg. fluorescent effect. In the late afternoon of 8 November 1895, Röntgen was determined to test his idea. In 1874, Röntgen became a lecturer at the He carefully constructed a black cardboard University of Strasbourg. In 1875, he covering similar to the one he had used on became a professor at the Academy of the Lenard tube. He covered the Crookes– Agriculture at Hohenheim, Württemberg. He Hittorf tube with the cardboard and attached returned to Strasbourg as a professor of electrodes to a Ruhmkorff coil to generate physics in 1876, and in 1879, he was an electrostatic charge. Before setting up appointed to the chair of physics at the barium platinocyanide screen to test his the University of Giessen. In 1888, he idea, Röntgen darkened the room to test the obtained the physics chair at the University opacity of his cardboard cover. As he of Würzburg, and in 1900 at the University passed the Ruhmkorff coil charge through of Munich, by special request of the the tube, he determined that the cover was Bavarian government. light-tight and turned to prepare for the next Röntgen had family in Iowa in the United step of the experiment. It was at this point States and planned to emigrate. He that Röntgen noticed a faint shimmering accepted an appointment at Columbia from a bench a few feet away from the tube. University in New York City and bought To be sure, he tried several more transatlantic tickets, before the outbreak discharges and saw the same shimmering each time. Striking a match, he discovered the shimmering had come from the location Personal life of the barium platinocyanide screen he had Grave of Wilhelm Röntgen at Alter Friedhof been intending to use next. Based on the (old cemetery) in Gießen formation of regular shadows, Röntgen Röntgen was married to Anna Bertha Ludwig termed the phenomenon "rays".: As 8 for 47 years until her death in 1919 at the age November was a Friday, so he took of 80. In 1866, they met in Zürich at Anna's advantage of the weekend to repeat his father's café, Zum Grünen Glas. They experiments and made his first notes. In the became engaged in 1869 and wed following weeks, he ate and slept in his in Apeldoorn, Netherlands on 7 July 1872; laboratory as he investigated many the delay was due to Anna being six years properties of the new rays he temporarily Wilhelm's senior and his father not approving termed "X-rays", using the mathematical of her age or humble background. Their designation ("X") for something unknown. marriage began with financial difficulties as The new rays came to bear his name in family support from Röntgen had ceased. many languages as "Röntgen rays" (and the They raised one child, Josephine Bertha associated X-ray radiograms as Ludwig, whom they adopted as a six-year-old "Röntgenograms"). after her father, Anna's only brother, died in At one point, while he was investigating the 1887. ability of various materials to stop the rays, For ethical reasons, Röntgen did not seek Röntgen brought a small piece of lead into patents for his discoveries, holding the view position while a discharge was occurring. that they should be publicly available without Röntgen thus saw the first radiographic charge. After receiving his Nobel prize image: his own flickering ghostly skeleton money, Röntgen donated the 50,000 on the barium platinocyanide screen. Swedish krona to research at the University About six weeks after his discovery, he took of Würzburg. Although he accepted the a picture—a radiograph—using X-rays of honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, he his wife Anna Bertha's hand. When she saw rejected an offer of lower nobility, or Niederer her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my Adelstitel, denying the preposition von death!"[ He later took a better picture of his (meaning "of") as a nobiliary particle (i.e., von friend Albert von Kölliker's hand at a public Röntgen). With the inflation following World lecture. War I, Röntgen fell into bankruptcy, spending Röntgen's original paper, "On A New Kind of his final years at his country home Rays" (Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen), at Weilheim, near Munich.] Röntgen died on was published on 28 December 1895. On 5 10 February 1923 from carcinoma of the January 1896, an Austrian newspaper intestine, also known as colorectal cancer. In reported Röntgen's discovery of a new type keeping with his will, his personal and of radiation. Röntgen was awarded an scientific correspondence, with few honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from exceptions, were destroyed upon his death. the University of Würzburg after his He was member in the Dutch Reformed discovery. He also received the Rumford Church. Medal of the British Royal Society in 1896, jointly with Philipp Lenard, who had already Awards and honors shown that a portion of the cathode rays 1896: Rumford Medal of the Royal Society could pass through a thin film of a metal 1896: MatteucciMedal of the Accademia such as aluminium. Röntgen published a nazionale delle scienze total of three papers on X-rays between 1897: Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin 1895 and 1897. Today, Röntgen is Institute considered the father of 1900: Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service diagnostic radiology, the medical speciality to Science of Columbia University which uses imaging to diagnose disease. 1901: Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of X-rays In 1901, Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics. The award was officially "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him". Shy in public speaking, he declined to give a Nobel lecture. Röntgen donated the 50,000 Swedish krona reward from his Nobel Prize to research at his university, the University of Würzburg. Like Marie and Pierre Curie, Röntgen refused to take out patents related to his discovery of X-rays, as he wanted society as a whole to benefit from practical applications of the phenomenon. Röntgen was also awarded Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science in 1900.