Röntgen, Wilhelm Konrad | The announcement of the discovery of the X-ray

Röntgen, Wilhelm Konrad

Eine neue Art von Strahlen. Wurzburg: Sitzungsberichte der Wurzburger Physik.-medic. Gesellschaft, 1895-1896

Two volumes, 8vo (228 x 150 mm). Part I without title-page (as issued), and with final blank present, title-page to part II; minor toning, a few marginal pencil markings to part I. Publisher's printed wrappers, part I buff, part II orange; some very minor toning, one or two slight chips to part II. Housed together in custom blue cloth-covered slipcase and folding chemises.

First edition of the extremely scarce offprints from Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-medicinischen Gesellschaft zu Würzburg, in the original wrappers.

Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen was the first to investigate the fogging of photographic plates by what he named "x-rays." The first x-ray photographs showed the bones in his wife's hand and the interior of several metal objects. His work "completely revolutionized the study of chemistry and physics" (Printing and the Mind of Man), opening the door for research concerning atomic structure, radioactivity, and the electron theory. When he published the present texts, Röntgen was professor of physics at the University of Würzburg. In 1900 he was appointed to the same position at the University of Munich, and one year later Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics for his momentous discovery of x-rays.

In part I, Röntgen announced that he had discovered fluorescence in the area of a photographic plate bombarded by unknown rays, and he mailed offprints of this article to several colleagues in the same year that the journal published his news. Part II amplified Röntgen's findings and disseminated information about designs for x-ray equipment.

REFERENCES: Dibner 162; Garrison-Morton 2683; Grolier/ Horblit 90 (periodical publication); Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries 6; Norman 1841, 1842; Printing and the Mind of Man 380 (periodical publication)