Radiology, Vol 181, 635-639, Copyright © 1991 by Radiological Society of North America
The first radiation accident in America: a centennial account of the x- ray photograph made in 1890
TL Walden Jr
Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889-5145.
On February 22, 1890, Dr Arthur Goodspeed and William Jennings made the
first x-ray photograph, in the physical lecture room of the University of
Pennsylvania. On that evening, Goodspeed and Jennings had been making brush
electrographs of coins and brass weights. After they finished their
experiments, Jennings stacked all of the photographic plates; two
coins--either left from the experiments or Jennings' trolley fare--were
placed on top of the plates. Goodspeed then demonstrated to Jennings the
university's collection of Crookes tubes, with the idea of photographing
the glow from the tube. While the two men were talking, however, the
Crookes tube was emitting x radiation that affected the nearby plates.
After the plates were developed, Jennings noted that one had the shawdow(s)
of a disk(s) on it; neither man could explain the image. On hearing of
Roentgen's work in 1896, Goodspeed and Jennigns retrieved the original
plate and reproduced their "accident." The glass plate was subsequently
lost among library archives.
