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Incoming links: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 2026-10-18
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen received the award for discovering X-rays.[ref]
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 by Nobel Prize Outreach. Official summary: laureates, prize shares and motivation
The Röntgen X-ray discovery experiment follows how a glowing screen led to tests of a new penetrating electromagnetic radiation.By Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen; translated by Arthur Stanton. Original communication, 1895; English translation, Nature 53, 274–276, 23 January 1896. Inspected later reprint, pp. 153–157, reproducing Science NS3, 227–231 (1896).
Cited passages: §§1–6, 11–17.
Röntgen X-ray discovery experiment 2026-10-18
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's 1895 first communication describes an induction coil driving an evacuated gas-discharge tube, enclosed in black cardboard in darkness. A paper screen coated with barium platinocyanide showed fluorescence even with its uncoated side facing the tube, visible two metres away. The covering excluded ordinary illumination.[ref]
On a New Kind of Rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Röntgen, On a New Kind of Rays, §§1–2; inspected reprint p. 153
He interposed materials: a thousand-page book transmitted; lead was practically opaque. A stepped stack of foil produced a photographic plate record. Different materials were not equivalent at equal density and thickness. Photographic plates checked visual observations while remaining covered against ordinary illumination.[ref]
On a New Kind of Rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. First communication, §§2–6; reprint pp. 153–154: absorption tests and photographic controls
Section 14 lists photographs of hand bones, wire on a bobbin, boxed weights, an enclosed compass, and a lead-painted door. It does not identify the hand's owner. Magnetic deflection moved the cathode ray impact point and thus the source, without bending the emerging X-rays. Their nature remained unsettled.[ref]
On a New Kind of Rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. First communication, §§11–14 and 17; reprint pp. 156–157
The observations belong to 1895; the contemporary English translation appeared in Nature on 23 January 1896.[ref]
On a New Kind of Rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Catalogue, On a new kind of rays: notes identify the Nature translation and its publication date
The experimental logic separates production, transmission and detection. A visibly opaque covering can transmit X-rays; fluorescence then converts deposited energy into visible light. A shadow measures a difference between paths through an object, rather than a direct view of its surface. Neither a screen's brightness nor photographic darkness alone measures an absolute X-ray energy or establishes the X-ray attenuation law below. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen 2026-10-18
A physicist.[ref]
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1901/rontgen/biographical/. Biographical identity and professional specialization
Portrait of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
. The Röntgen X-ray discovery experiment connected a covered discharge tube, a fluorescent screen and photographic exposures. The X-ray article follows those tests into modern source and attenuation models.