Who Invented the X-Ray Machine?

By Staff WriterLast Updated March 30, 2020

The X-ray machine was invented by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895. How he discovered the properties of X-rays is unknown, but the first X-ray image ever published was one that he took of his wife’s hand.

X-rays were almost immediately used for further research. Other scientists began taking radiographs in clinical settings within weeks of Röntgen’s first X-ray image. Due to his discovery and naming of X-rays, this form of electromagnetic radiation is also called a “Röntgen-ray.” Wilhelm Röntgen won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. Although the principle of early X-ray machines was the same as in modern machines, the early equipment required much larger doses of radiation, in some cases up to 1500 times the modern amount.