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Natural color X-ray photogram of a wine scene. Note the edges of hollow cylinders as compared to the solid candle. William Coolidge explains medical imaging and X-rays.. An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays.
Unprotected experiments in the U.S. in 1896 with an early X-ray tube (Crookes tube), when the dangers of radiation were largely unknown.[1]The history of radiation protection begins at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with the realization that ionizing radiation from natural and artificial sources can have harmful effects on living organisms.
Taking an X-ray image with early Crookes tube apparatus, late 1800s. Radiography's origins and fluoroscopy's origins can both be traced to 8 November 1895, when German physics professor Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered the X-ray and noted that, while it could pass through human tissue, it could not pass through bone or metal. [1]
Gamma rays, X-rays, and the higher energy range of ultraviolet light constitute the ionizing part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word "ionize" refers to the breaking of one or more electrons away from an atom, an action that requires the relatively high energies that these electromagnetic waves supply.
Rollins suggested in 1901 that anyone working with X-rays should wear leaded glasses, enclose the X-ray tube in a leaded box and to cover all areas of the body not being radiographed with a radiopaque shield. He published a series of over 200 articles warning of the possible dangers of the X-ray beam. For many years his suggestions were ignored ...
Wilhelm Röntgen discovered and named X-rays. After experimenting with high voltages applied to an evacuated tube on 8 November 1895, he noticed a fluorescence on a nearby plate of coated glass. In one month, he discovered X-rays' main properties. [45]: 307 The last portion of the EM spectrum to be discovered was associated with radioactivity.
X-rays normally have a lower energy than gamma rays, and an older convention was to define the boundary as a wavelength of 10 −11 m (or a photon energy of 100 keV). [14] That threshold was driven by historic limitations of older X-ray tubes and low awareness of isomeric transitions. Modern technologies and discoveries have shown an overlap ...
The history of X-ray microscopy can be traced back to the early 20th century. After the German physicist Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, scientists soon illuminated an object using an X-ray point source and captured the shadow images of the object with a resolution of several micrometers. [2]