Journal of the Belgian Society of Radiology (Jan 2023)

Father and Son Jointly Announced the Discovery of Röntgen Rays in Two Consecutive Press Articles – Revisited

  • Jean-François Monville,
  • Robert F. Dondelinger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5334/jbsr.2919
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 107, no. 1

Abstract

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It is generally omitted that the press article announcing the discovery of Röntgen rays on the 5th of January 1896 was followed by a second article published two days later in the same Viennese newspaper 'Die Presse' under the same heading. While the initial article was composed hastily by the editor in a journalistic style and contained no information on the nature of the new rays, the second publication was partly composed by the son of the editor, a physicist, who informed on some of the basic physical properties of the Röntgen rays.

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