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From

Earlier

Pages

...

In a surprisingly short interval after the discovery of xrays, many of the important applications of the new science were found. A number of these applications have been modified only in small refinements since then, while others have changed more significantly. For example, one of the minor inconveniences of air travel today is the need for x-ray examination of items carried aboard the plane. This becomes more than mntating if the traveler is carrying photographic film. In addition,

baggage

handled

in the

luggage

A much more significant story concerns cinematography. In the same way as the motor car has become almost indispensible in city living, it may be difficult to imagine a world without moving pictures (not to mention television!). At one time there were none. Expenimentation and developmental work on motion pictures began soon after the invention of photography, and the growth of method and machinery for making and projecting motion pictures progressed slowly. Edison’s first commercially successful Kinetescope was used in 1894 [6]. The first x-ray motion picture, a cineroentgenographic study of the movements of the “joints and sockets in a frog” was presented 3 years later by John Macintyre in 1897 to the Glasgow Philosophical Society and to the Royal Society of London [7]. The film segment was 12.2 m long. Although the width of the film was not specified, Edison used film 35 mm wide, today’s standard [6]. Lists of “firsts” in the early years of our science have been published [4] and many of these uses are still current. Contrast medium was used to show the lumen of a hollow viscus by introducing mercury into a hollow soft rubber sound in the esophagus in 1897 [8]. An

compartment

is also subjected to x-ray examination. This use of radiation is not an innovation. In the London Globe of July 16, 1897 [1], appears the statement that the French customs officers were using the new Roentgen rays to detect contraband articles. This practice had been suggested by even earlier successful examination of the interior of bombs. The Globe correspondent correctly points out that valuable and frequently smuggled articles such as lace, cigarettes, and cigars would not be susceptible to discovery. Examination

of welds

in metal

by x-ray

to show

weak-

nesses and improper joints has been carried out for many years. The phrase “many years” can be refined: it should be exactly 81 years. The method was used in 1897, and was reported by W. S. Hedley [2], then editor of the Archives of the Roentgen Ray. In addition he described the use of x-rays “in distinguishing real gems from artificial ones, to discover the fraudulent introduction of mineral substances into textile fabrics to increase their weight; . . . to test insulation in the construction of cables

.

arteniogram

State

to use paper

for some

studies.

In the

basis.

Land’s

developments

have

use of paper in some applications venience are considerations. Occasionally

frivolous. fortunately sode was toward

the

suggested

Fluoroscopy long been really tilting

an

implied

and

in

interests

opera

glasses

of modesty

were

threat.

introduced

a bill in

[10].

One

out “first”

roentgenological which

has

invesbeen

culled

Michigan

48201

.

Anonymous

con-

note. Arch

WS:

Wilkins, 1969 uses

unreal

and

Roentgen Ray 2 : 20, 1897 Roentgen rays, a survey, present and retrospective.Arch Roentgen Ray 2:6-12, 1897 3. Anonymous note. Electrical World 28:734, 1896 4. Gnigg ERN: The Trail of the Invisible Light. Springfield, Ill., Thomas, 1965 5. Brecher R, Brecher E: The Rays. Baltimore, Williams & 1

2. Hedley

the

and

hand

REFERENCES

dangerous

6. Motion pictures. Encyclopaedia Britannica , 1967 7. Jarre H: Roentgen cinematography in The Science of Radiology, edited by Glasser 0, Springfield, Ill., Thomas, 1933, p 198 8. Cited in Fortschr Geb Roentgenstr 1 :95, 1897 9. Opitz: Drei Aktinogramme von einem Arteriosklerotiker und einem mit grauer Salbe injizierte Praeparate. Fortschr Geb Roentgenstr 1 : 70, 1897 10. Snook HC: The development of noentgenology. Am J Roentgenol 4:337-342, 1917

or

in shoe fitting, for example, has banned. Another short-lived epiat windmills, since it was directed

1896, Assemblyman Reed House of Representatives rays

time

for carrying

in 1897

Detroit,

interest

reintroduced

where

of the

E. Frederick Lang Harper Hospital

of economy, paper had also been used in machines for screening for pulmonary tuberculosis before chemotherapy obviated the need for this type of examination on a wide

preparation

from earlier pages has largely fallen into disuse. In 1898 in the first volume of the Fortschritte there appeared an illustration of the knee [9]. It was printed upside down.

.“

forced

Institution

tigations

The recording of images on paper rather than on glass plates and film has undergone intermittent florescence. It was first suggested in a journal on electricity in 1897 [3]; and Eastman Kodak advertised x-ray paper in 1897 [4], but it was not popular. During World War II, when the armed services preempted much of the film pnoduction of the manufacturers and when raw material for plastic film was difficult to procure, civilian radiologists were

of an anatomic

wrist was published in 1897 [9]. The third party put his foot in the door (or interposed it between the patient and radiologist) in Germany with the establishment of the

On

February

in the

New

prohibiting

theaters,

the

apparently

26, Jersey

use of xin

the

[5]. 181