###The Accidental X-Ray
Bavaria, Germany, 1895 — While testing a completely blacked-out electrical tube, a physicist noticed a mysterious green glow shining across the room.
In 1895, physics professor Wilhelm Röntgen was conducting a meticulous experiment with a glass electrical tube. To block out the light, he pumped the air out of the tube and wrapped it tightly in thick, heavy black cardboard. Then, he blasted it with high-voltage electricity.
Röntgen’s setup was perfect, but he accidentally noticed something strange. A piece of chemically treated paper sitting on a bench a few feet away was glowing with a weird green light. An invisible ray was shooting right through his heavy cardboard shield!
He spent weeks testing this mysterious new radiation. Eventually, he asked his wife, Anna Bertha, to place her hand on a photographic plate. The invisible ray passed right through her skin, capturing the world’s first medical X-ray: a haunting image of her bones and wedding ring.
The Accidental X-Ray — Bavaria, Germany, 1895