Information Dissemination 100 Years Ago: W.C. Roentgen and the Discovery of X-Rays

Abstract

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen first observed the phenomenon of X-rays on 8 November 1895. After six weeks of experimentation he wrote a preliminary communication, the first of his three papers on the subject, and submitted it to the President of the Wuerzburg Physical-Medical Society, Karl Lehmann, on 28 December 1895. Lehmann recognized the importance of the paper and arranged for it to be printed immediately. Though this paper, “Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen” (“On a new kind of rays”), was ultimately published in the Society’s proceedings for 1895,¹ Roentgen did not deliver his lecture to the Society until 23 January 1896, there being no meeting during the Christmas period.