When the world became transparent
Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally discovered an invisible radiation that can penetrate almost any kind of matter. In doing so, he revolutionized a wide variety of scientific fields, from physics to medicine, where X-ray examinations are still indispensable today.
At the end of the 19th century, hardly anyone expected a scientific breakthrough from Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. Although the Würzburg physics professor was regarded by his German colleagues as a talented and conscientious experimenter, internationally he was a blank slate. In addition, his 50th birthday was coming up in 1895 – but most researchers make their most important discoveries at a younger age.
Röntgen didn't have the best qualifications from a school point of view either. When his class unfavorably caricatured a teacher in 1863, he was very upset about it, but no one wanted to plead guilty. Eventually, Roentgen took responsibility to calm everyone down - and was summarily expelled from the school. Without a school-leaving certificate he could not study and therefore took part in lectures as a guest student. It was only through detours that he managed to do his doctorate in Switzerland and then work at the University of Würzburg.
On November 8, 1895 he was once again working alone in his laboratory. Roentgen devoted himself to a so-called cathode ray tube, which gave off a peculiar glow. Such vacuum tubes, in which electrons are accelerated with high electrical voltage, were only in circulation for a few years. Tube televisions, among other things, were later based on this technology, which populated countless living rooms until the advent of semiconductor technology. When Roentgen worked on these devices, electrons were still unknown as elementary particles, which is why scientists like him investigated what makes the tubes glow.
On that day, in his darkened laboratory, the physicist noticed something unusual…
