The First X-Ray Experiment in America?

Notes on Early Experiments with X-Rays in the Laboratory at Dartmouth

While Dr. Frost does not claim that these experimentswere the first in America, the editor has taken upon himselfthe responsibility of making such a claim, since journalisticevidence of the Nineties seems to prove that the Dartmouthexperiments were the first. Imagine yourself in the laboratory of Dean Emerson on the ground floor of Reed Hall, ifyou will, and then try to put yourself back to the year whenthis first trial was made. It seems impossible to leave theworld of automobiles, radios and vacuum cleaners so far behind. But the new age is so new—it seems to have encompass ed, so many miracles in so short a time.

THE FIRST NEWS

PROFESSOR ROENTGEN'S discovery of the X-rays was reported to the Scientists of Wuertzburg late in the autumn of 1895 and it was practically buried in the transactions of that local society. Toward the end of January, 1896, rumors concerning the new discovery came over the cables to American newspapers. The celebrated London weekly, Nature, printed a translation of Roentgen's paper in its issue of January 23, which reached this country ten or twelve days later. It was copied in the issue of Science, of February 14, and contained the first reference to the subject, as far as I can learn, published in that journal. That issue of Science also contained a brief article by the writer, dated February 4; one by Dr. M. I. Pupin of Columbia, and another by Dr. Arthur Goodspeed of Pennsylvania, each of these dated February 8. A page of pictures was printed with these articles giving photographic results obtained by each of us.

In the early eighties Professor Johann Puluj of the University of Vienna devised a type of Crookes tube which was splendidly adapted for the production of Xrays. Although he was quite unconscious of this fact, he placed a sheet of mica obliquely across the interior of the tube and covered the mica with phosphorescent material. This gave a fine display of phosphorescence, and the cathode rays developed a large quantity of X-rays as they fell upon the salts. There is no doubt that many of these tubes had been generating X-rays in laboratory demonstrations for more than a dozen years before anyone knew it.

CARRYING-ON IN HANOVER

During the years 1887-89, the writer had been assistant to Professor Emerson in the Physical Laboratory on the ground floor of Eeed Hall, and had the privilege of using the apparatus there. When the cable hints were received about Roentgen's success, it immediately seemed worthwhile to test the numerous vacuum tubes in our laboratory for their capacity to produce the mysterious rays. Our good friend, H. H. Langill, the local photographer, who was always glad to assist in scientific experiments, took care of the developing and printing of the pictures. The results were immediate and startling, particularly since the Roentgen article in Nature had not then arrived. An ordinary photographic plate, placed in a closed plate-holder, was laid on the table a few inches below the tube, and various substances of different sizes and shapes were then put on the plate-holder; the details of these objects were plainly brought out on developing the plates. No one could ever forget the interest felt in watching the development of those first plates on that Saturday evening, either January 24, or February 1, 1896, probably the latter. It did not take long to find where the rays were most active around the tubes, and the Puluj tube proved to be the most efficient. I suspect, in fact, that it was one of the best tubes in America for the next few weeks. It was handled carefully and was not burned out, as were many of the tubes used in other laboratories. It was attached to the secondary circuit of a large induction coil fed by Grove batteries. I believe that it is preserved as a museum piece in the Wilder Laboratory.

EDDIE MCCARTHY FIRST X-RAY PATIENT

A Hanover boy, Eddie McCarthy, had broken the ulna of his forearm on January 19, and Dr. G. D. Frost brought him to the laboratory for a test by tke pkotograpkic metkod. We secured quite a satisfactory pkotograpk on February 3, as was mentioned in my article in Science. This was presumably one of the earliest photographs of a fracture taken in America. I sent a print of the apparatus as well as a good picture of a hand to Harper's Weekly, in which they were published on page 174 of that periodical for 1896.

The writer easily demonstrated how little he knew about the theory of the new rays at a meeting of the Dartmouth Scientific Association held in the middle of February as has been shown by items exhumed from the Hanover Gazette.

The value of the new method to surgery was so apparent that there was a great development in the manufacture of X-ray tubes in this country, and a vast number of experiments were conducted in many of the laboratories and hospitals in America. Other photographs of broken limbs were made with the Dartmouth equipment in the spring of 1896, and as early as the autumn the writer was called upon to testify in a damage suit involving a broken limb. The testimony of the Xrays was, of course, immediately accepted by the courts.

A METAL SPLINTER IN THE FOREFINGER

THE FIRST X-RAY PHOTO AT DARTMOUTH Edward McCarthy's broken arm

A BROKEN ABM

A BULLET IN THE KNEE