Mural of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
Schalkwijkstraat 56A
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The German-Dutch Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1836-1923) spent several years in this house with the family of chemistry professor Jan Willem Gunning. Röntgen wanted to study Physics at Utrecht University without a degree. This failed, because his command of classical languages was insufficient. However, Röntgen was allowed to attend the university as an observer (extraneus). Röntgen attended lectures in geometry, stereometry, physics, zoology and botany in that position. Eventually, Röntgen studied mechanical engineering in Zurich from 1865 to 1868, where he was in fact admitted without a degree. He received his doctorate there in 1869 and became a professor of physics at several universities (Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Gießen, Würzburg and Munich). In 1901, Röntgen received the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering X-rays (called Röntgen-rays in Dutch and German). Röntgen refused to take out a patent on his discovery so that it could be used freely and, in fact, did not want the rays to be named after him either. In Dutch and German language, this failed. In French and English however, the rays are called 'X'. Röntgen died of intestinal cancer at the age of 77. His archive containing all his scientific and personal notes was subsequently destroyed, as instructed in his will.
Did you know?
- Röntgen took the very first X-ray picture as early as 1895? It was a photograph of his wife's hand.
- A set of such first photographs was discovered in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem in 2019? The photos were part of the legacy of Dutch physicist and Nobel Price winner Hendrik Lorentz.
