Röntgen Memorial Site

Where Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, in the physics institute of the university

The physics institute of the University of Würzburg, on Röntgenring, is where Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen made one of the most important scientific discoveries in history: the existence of X-rays, on 8 November 1895. The memorial site preserves the original laboratory where the discovery was made and presents it in historical context. Röntgen was awarded the first-ever Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for this discovery.

The site is modest but genuinely moving in the way that the actual places where important things happened often are. The reconstruction of the original equipment — cathode ray tube, screen, lead plates — makes the simplicity of the experiment vivid. For those with any interest in the history of science, it is worth the visit.

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A story
On the evening of 8 November 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was alone in his laboratory working with a cathode ray tube when he noticed that a fluorescent screen across the room was glowing — even though it was not in the direct path of the rays. He spent the next several weeks in secret, sleeping in his laboratory, before revealing the discovery to the world on 28 December 1895. The first ever X-ray image he made was of his wife Anna's hand; she reportedly said "I have seen my death" when she saw the bones.