Abstract
IT may perhaps interest those who occupy themselves in photographing with Röntgen rays to know that a very effective and rapid method is obtained when proceeding as I will explain. I had a piece of scheelite or native tungstate of calcium, such as occurs in a collection of minerals, crushed to a somewhat coarse powder, and made it into an emulsion with gelatine; this was applied in a consistent and uniform layer on a piece of stiff black paper, and after this was dried the surface showed numerous crystalline, glittering particles. The right condition for fluorescing was attained, as was evident, when a Crookes' tube in action was placed behind and looked at in the dark, though the luminosity was not so strong as with a screen covered with crystals of platinocyanide of barium. The paper, thus prepared, was simply laid down on a very sensitive photographic glass plate, with its fluorescent side of course in contact with the film; on the upper surface metallic objects or the fingers were put. Applying now Newton's focus tube (which, I may add, gave me excellent results in former experiments) with an induction coil, regulated to give sparks of five to six inches, I obtained sharply-defined radiographs of keys, &c, in twenty-five seconds, and of the fingers, showing the bones and metallic objects hidden between them and the plate, in ninety seconds, distinct enough to perceive even the eye in a needle that was put in the epidermis. I also tried the fluoride of calcium mentioned by Prof. Winkelmann, of Jena; but I perceived no fluorescence, perhaps because the powder was amorphous throughout. As scheelite is a very cheap mineral, large screens with fluorescent surfaces may be constructed at a trifling expense.
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BLEEKRODE, L. Radiographs by Fluorescent Screens. Nature 53, 557 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/053557a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/053557a0
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