X-rays
A new kind of ray photographs the bones of a living hand.
- When
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Röntgen discovers X-rays in November 1895 and within weeks has imaged his wife's hand, ring included. The news spreads worldwide in months and hospitals adopt it almost immediately — the fastest uptake of any medical technology to that point. He declined to patent it. Early operators worked without shielding and many developed cancers and lost hands, before the dangers were understood.