History Of Radiology

1895 - Rontgen discovers x-rays.

1896 - Becquerel discovers radioactivity.

1901 - Rontgen receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of x-rays.

1905 - The first English book on Chest Radiography is published.

1913 -Coolidge introduces the hot cathode tube.

1914 - Von Laue receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for x-ray diffraction from crystals.

1915 - Bragg and Bragg receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for crystal structure derived from x-ray diffraction.

1917 - Barkla receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for characteristic radiation of elements.

1918 - Eastman introduces radiographic film.

1920 - The Society of Radiographers is formed.

1924 - Siegbahn receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for x-ray spectroscopy.

1927 - Compton receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for scattering of x-rays by electrons.

1936 - Debye receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for diffraction of x-rays and electrons in gases.

1934 - Joliot and Curie discover artificial radionuclides.

1937 -The first clinical use of artificial radioactivity is done at the University of California- Berkeley.

1946 - Schoenander develops the film cassette changer which allowed a series of cassettes to be exposed at the rate of 1.5 cassettes per second.

1946 - Nuclear medicine is discovered by accident.

1950's - Wide-spread clinical use of nuclear medicine starts.

1950's - Development of the image intensifier and X-ray television.

1956 - The medical use of Ultrasound starts in Poland.

1962 - Kuhl introduces emission reconstruction tomography. This method later becomes known as SPECT and PET.

1967 - The first clinical use of MRI takes place in England.

1972 - CT is invented by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories in England.

1977 - The first human MRI images are produced.

1979 - Comack and Hounsfield receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine for computed axial tomography.

1980's - The advancement of radiopharmaceuticals and the use of computers transform Nuclear Medicine into what it is today.

1980's - Fuji develops CR technology.

1981 - Siegbahn receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for high resolution electron spectroscopy.

1984 - MRI is cleared for commercial use by the Food and Drug Administration.

People Of Importance

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

(1845 - 1923)

German physicist who was a recipient of the first Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1901, for his discovery of X rays, which heralded the age of modern physics and revolutionized diagnostic medicine. Rontgen studied at the Polytechnic in Zurich and then was professor of physics at the universities of Strasbourg (1876-79), Giessen (1879-88), Wurzburg (1888-1900), and Munich (1900-20). His research also included work on elasticity, capillary action of fluids, specific heats of gases, conduction of heat in crystals, absorption of heat by gases, and piezoelectricity.

In 1895, while experimenting with electric current flow in a partially evacuated glass tube (cathode-ray tube), Rontgen observed that a nearby piece of barium platinocyanide gave off light when the tube was in operation. He theorized that when the cathode rays (electrons) struck the glass wall of the tube, some unknown radiation was formed that traveled across the room, struck the chemical, and caused the fluorescence. Further investigation revealed that paper, wood, and aluminum, among other materials, are transparent to this new form of radiation. He found that it affected photographic plates, and, since it did not noticeably exhibit any properties of light, such as reflection or refraction, he mistakenly thought the rays were unrelated to light. In view of its uncertain nature, he called the phenomenon X-radiation, though it also became known as Rontgen radiation. He took the first X-ray photographs, of the interiors of metal objects and of the bones in his wife's hand.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Otto Glasser, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen and the Early History of the Roentgen Rays (1933, reissued 1993; originally published in German, 1931), focuses on the scientific events of 1856. W. Robert Nitske, The Life of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, Discoverer of the X Ray (1971), treats the personal and public aspects of his life.

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