Roentgen Interview

[FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV]

Today, Nov. 8, 1995, being the 100th anniversary of Roentgen's
discovery of x-rays, I thought it might be worth posting an interview
with Roentgen that was published in the April 1896 issue of McClures
magazine. The interview was with an American journalist by the name
of Dam. The interview was conducted in a mix of German, English and
French. To my knowledge, these are the only recorded words of
Roentgen describing the details of his discovery (with the exception
of a shorter interview that went unpublished for some 20 years and is
consequently somewhat suspect).

Dam:   Now Professor, will you tell me the history of the discovery?
Roentgen:   There is no history. I have been for a long time
interested in the problem of the cathode rays from a vacuum tube as
studied by Hertz and Lenard. I had followed theirs and other
researches with great interest and had determined as soon as I had
the time to make some researches of my own. This time I found at the
close of last October. I had been at work for some days when I
discovered something new.
Dam:   What was the date?
Roentgen:   The 8th of November.
Dam:  And what was the discovery?
Roentgen:   I was working with a Crookes tube covered by a shield of
black cardboard. A piece of barium platinocyanide paper lay on the
bench there. I had been passing a current through the tube and I
noticed a peculiar black line across the paper. The effect was one
which could only be produced in ordinary parlance by the passage of
light.  No light could come from the tube because the shield which
covered it was impervious to any known light.
Dam:   And what did you think?
Roentgen:  I did not think, I investigated. I assumed that the effect
must have come from the tube since its character indicated that it
could come from nowhere else. I tested it. In a few minutes there was
no doubt about it. Rays were coming from the tube which had a
luminescent effect upon the paper. I tried it at greater and greater
distances, even at two meters. It seemed at first a new kind of
visible light. It was clearly something new, something unrecorded.


Happy Centennial!

Paul Frame
Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education
Professional Training Programs
framep@orau.gov