Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, discover of the X-ray, was born in1845 on March 27 in Lennep, Prussia, in the German Rhineland it is now part of Remscheid. His father was very wealthy and was a textile merchant. His mother was Dutch, born in Appledoorn, Holland. Wilhelm loved nature and not school (his grades were okay). He went to a technical school in Holland. He had trouble with his teachers because of his behavior and finally he was dismissed from school without a certificate saying he graduated He was dismissed because he had laughed at a picture of one of his teachers and had refused to tell who drew the picture. He then went to the new Poly-Technical Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. While there he went mountain climbing, which he loved. He applied himself and earned a degree in mechanical engineering. He had graduated at the top of his class. He was awarded a doctorate in 1869 from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He was able to get this doctorate in physics with a thesis on gases.

Institute of Physics

    Since Roentgen did not have his secondary school diploma there were no faculty positions open to him so he started work as August Kundt's lab assistant. Because of his reputation he was finally offered a position at the Hohenheim Agricultural Academy. The problems were that the lab was poorly equipped and he had barely any time to work in it. He then became professor of physics at Strassburg in 1876 and he held the same position in Giessen in 1879 and in Wurzburg in 1888. In 1888 he also was elected Chancellor of the University in Wurzburg. He taught through the day and experimented at night. He learned about cathode rays. Then he went to Munich in 1899 and in 1900 became the head of the physics faculty and headed the new Institute of Physics.

Below is a tube diagram of the Hittorf-Crookes tube.
     In 1895 Roentgen started working with the Hittorf-Crookes tube and Ruhmkoroff coil. He called his new finding X-rays, X for unknown and ray for the rays from the crystals-barium platino cyanide.This happened on November 8, 1895. , this caused much excitement through the world. Many scientists then started experimenting with the rays. .
    He published a paper about his discovery. In December 1895 he held a demonstration showing his first X-ray pictures including one of his wife's hand. A Dr. Kollicker suggested in January 1896 to call the new rays after its discover, this was done in Germany and is called a Roentgen picture.

Roentgen's wife's hand.