Meanwhile, in Europe Roentgen was
receiving his fifteen minutes of fame. Kaiser Wilhelm II and his
wife had a personal demonstration by the physicist himself. In return,
they bestowed upon him the Prussian Order of the Crown, II Class.41
Despite the public's desire
for lectures, Roentgen refused all speaking engagements because of his
severe stage fright but he accepted all the honors that were bestowed upon
him.42 In 1901, he became the first person
to receive the Nobel prize in Physics. However, this was not a happy
occasion; Philip Lenard, Roentgen's colleague from whom he had borrowed
the variation of the Crooke's tube, also demanded credit for the discovery.
Some English and French prizes were given to both men, but the Nobel
Prize remained in Roentgen's name only.43 Roentgen
willed the prize money to the University of Wuerzburg and declined to see
patents or propriety claims on the X-Ray.44
He quietly lived out his life until his death in 1923.
The potential uses of the X-Ray in 1896 seemed endless. The
most obvious use was in the world of medicine; X-Rays were used to locate
kidney stones, reset dislocations, and to check the size and condition of
the heart and lungs.45 The legal system also quickly incorporated
the discovery; less than a year after the X-Ray's introduction, a judge
allowed X-Ray evidence into court proceedings.46
The most surprising use of the X-Ray was in the realm of the spiritual;
because of the spiritualist movement sweeping America in the late
19th century, the X-Ray was considered to be a
possible link to the fourth dimension and the "other side". Even Sir
William Crookes, the inventor of the Crookes tube, was deeply involved in
this movement, regularly attending seances and conducting experiments of
the occult.47
Despite this incorporation
into society, the citizens of the Victorian era were still concerned with
their self preservation, especially concerning females. The public
still believed that the X-Ray could see to any depth of the body and through
walls, posing a threat to not only their privacy of body but also of home.48
Showing any part of the female form, even the bones, was seen as
an exposure of her sexuality and therefore shameful. The fears were
so widespread that a New Jersey assemblyman introduced a bill forbidding
the use of X-Ray opera glasses and companies sold lead-lined underwear to
keep away prying X-Ray eyes.49
These problems were exacerbated
by the print media, who weren't sure what to make of the new discovery.
The presses failed to appreciate the true nature of the X-Ray; they
called them photographs when they were actually shadows and played upon
the public's fear of immorality, referring to the X-Ray as a "revolting indecency".50
Advertisers of the newly created X-Ray industry were unsure of who
their audience was so they emphasized the simplicity, affordability, and
quick results their machines afforded. How-to manuals were printed
for the amateur and slogans such as "So easy a child can do it" created a
mass market for the adoption of the X-Ray.51
However, the so-called miracle X-Ray would soon show its darker side
to the world.
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