Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen: and the Early History of the Roentgen Rays

Abstract

LOOKING backward we can see very clearly the monumental character of the discovery of the X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Roöntgen in November 1895. This was truly the beginning of the ‘new physics’ and the first of a series of profound and basic revelations, which even now show no sign of ending. It is given to few men of science to make discoveries which attract world-wide and lasting attention, but the X-rays with their amazing penetrating powers, and their immediate and beneficent application in medicine, made an appeal to men of science and laymen alike, which is not likely to be surpassed in our time. Rontgen's discovery in fact, as Sir J. J. Thomson remarked in his Rede lecture on July 10, 1896, “appealed to the strongest of all human attributes, namely, curiosity”.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen: and the Early History of the Roentgen Rays.

By Otto Glasser. With a Chapter: Personal Reminiscences of W. C. Röntgen, by Margaret Boveri. Pp. xii + 494. (London: John Bale, Sons, and Danielsson, Ltd., 1933.) 32s. 6d. net.