The laboratory in which German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen first discovered x-rays in 1895, together with the early radiographic apparatus he used in his experiments, are housed in the Röntgen Memorial. The site is the former Physics Institute of the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg where Röntgen himself taught, (now the University of Applied Sciences).
The instruments used by Röntgen in his discovery included those in the below display cabinet: a cathode ray tube, Crookes tubes, a gas discharge tube, a spark induction coil, and a Müller x-ray tube. Cathode ray and gas discharge tubes produced streams of electrons and luminous emissions, demonstrating how electricity behaves when it travels through low pressure gases. The Crookes tube was the type Röntgen was using when he made his discovery and the Müller tube was subsequently developed to more reliably generate X-rays. All these tubes were driven by a spark induction coil, which provided the high voltages required to make them work.
- Photos by Luca Borghi ti.supmacinu|ihgrob.l#| (July 2025) and page layout by Maria Sofia Sgreccia ti.supmacla|aiccergs.sm#| (November 2025)
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