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Scientists working on a problem do not always know what the final result will be. Professor Rontgen was a physicist at the University of Wurzburg. Late on Friday, 8th November 1895, he was doing an experiment when he noticed something extraordinary. He had covered an electric bulb with black cardboard, and when he switched on the current, he saw little dancing lights on his table. On the table there were some pieces of paper which have been covered with metal salts. It was on this paper that the lights were shining. He took a piece of this paper and held it at a distance from the lamp. Between it and the lamp he placed a variety of object, a book, a pack of cards, a piece of wood and a door key. The ray penetrated every one of them, except the key. This mysterious ray could shine through everything except the metal. He asked his wife to hold her hand between the lamp a photographic plate. She was very surprised by this request, but she readily held up her hand, and when the plate developed there was a picture of the bones of her hand and of the ring on one finger. The ray could pass through the flesh and through the bone or the ring.
At a scientific meeting where he described what happened, Professor Rontgen called this ray “The Unknown”, the X-ray. Doctors quickly saw how this could be used, and soon there were X-ray machines in all the big hospitals. At first, this discovery was to enable doctors and surgeons to see exactly how a bone was fractured. Other uses came later.