CAR - Tribute to Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen - Immortal Roentgen

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 was awarded to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in recognition of the extraordinary services he had rendered with the discovery of the remarkable rays Röntgen was born on March 27, 1845 in Lennep, south of the industrial Ruhr Valley, then in the state of Prussia, before the unification of Germany. His father, Friedrich Conrad, was a local textile merchant and his mother, Constance Charlotte Froene, was a Dutch woman. In 1848, due to severe political unrest in Prussia, his family moved to the town of Appeldorn, Holland. Röntgen was then three years of age. This immigration resulted in the family losing their Prussian citizenship. Henceforward, they became Dutch citizens. For 14 years, Röntgen attended the primary and secondary school of Mortimer's Hermann. There stands a public library now. On December 27, 1862, in pursuit of advanced studies, Röntgen arrived in Utrecht, Holland, where he got admission in Utrecht Technical School. He started living in the house of Dr. Gunning, a well-known chemist of that time. Dr. Gunning used to encourage Röntgen to pursue further studies. A prank of a fellow student drawing a caricature of their teacher on the back blackboard took a worse turn when Röntgen refused to reveal the real name. His academic endeavors almost ended when he was expelled from the institute. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the discoverer of the race named after him, lived here from 1866 to 1869 as a student at the Federal Technical High School. These are the lines that are written on the plaque at his home in Zurich. Röntgen had moved to Zurich in November 1865 after he was accepted in the mechanical technical division of Zurich Polytechnical School. Röntgen often used to take long walks to enjoy the natural beauty of his surroundings. He enjoyed eating at a local inn called Zoo Grunenglas. There, Röntgen's eyes fell on a waitress named Anna Bertha Ludwig, who was also the owner's daughter. Later, Anna became his wife. After his graduation in 1868, Röntgen came under the mentorship of the great theoretical physicist Dr. August Kant. Under Dr. Kant, Röntgen wrote a dissertation, Studies on Gases, which obtained him a doctorate in philosophy in 1869. On January 18, 1872, Röntgen and Bertha got married and remained happily so for the rest of the 50 years. Having no children of their own, they adopted Bertha's niece, Josephine Bertha Ludwig. In the coming years, Röntgen continued experimenting and produced 18 papers. As a result of his recognition as an extraordinary scientist, he was offered the chair of the Physical Institute at the University of Wurzburg. At the end of 1895, many scientists like Hittorf, Krukes, Hertz and Leonard were experimenting on cathode rays. Röntgen became so engrossed in this area of experimentation that he became completely occupied in carrying on his observations day and night. Then came the historic day of Friday, November the 8th, 1895. Röntgen was in his lab using different tubes and experimenting on the cathode rays. He encased a Hittorf-Krukes tube in a cardboard and allowed current to pass through the tube. He observed a continued fluorescence of Excited, Röntgen discovered that the source of this dim light was a small barium platinum cyanide screen lying on the bench. Even after he had increased the distance, the screen continued with its fluorescence. Röntgen continued his experiments and observations for the several weeks. On December the 27th, 1895, he excitedly performed an exposure of the hand of his wife Bertha. This was the first recorded human x-ray, a fuzzy picture with one ring. He delivered his historic paper on a new kind of rays to the Wurzburg Physical Medical Society. The importance of this discovery was recognized instantly by fellow scientists. The news was released immediately before the public. Röntgen spoke publicly to his colleagues on January 23rd, 1896. He ended his speech on his discovery by taking an x-ray of the hand of Dr. Von Colliker, an eminent anatomist. It was Dr. Colliker who proposed that the rays should be known as Röntgen's rays. In spite of all the attention, Röntgen remained humble and never capitalized on his discovery or even patented. A sign was placed on the discovery building in 1937 which reads, in this building in the year 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered the rays that have been named after him. Since this discovery, x-rays have become an integral part of our regular life, mostly in the medical field. X-rays have also largely contributed in the field of arts. An x-ray scan of a painting can be used to verify its authenticity. One great example is Van Gogh's patch of grass. The x-ray image of that canvas revealed a head of a woman with a hat under the patch of grass. This means that Van Gogh had reused the same canvas on which he had painted the woman two and a half years earlier. In the later years, Röntgen devoted much of his time taking care of his wife Bertha who had developed a kidney disease. After her death in 1919, Röntgen retired from the University of Munich and kept himself busy with reading and the company of friends. In 1923, Röntgen developed colon trouble which slowly progressed. On February the 10th, 1923, the life of this famous yet humble and quiet person to whom we owe one of the greatest discoveries of all time came to an end. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen died of terminal colon cancer. In his will, he requested that his personal and scientific correspondences should be destroyed upon his death. On this historical date of November the 8th, Calcutta Academy of Radiology pays a humble tribute to this great scientist about whom Rudolf Grasche rightly said, immortal is his work, immortal his name.