engleski

Nikola Tesla, scientist and inventor ‒ discovery of X-rays

29th European Crystallographic Meeting, August, 23-28, 2015, Rovinj Croatia Nikola Tesla, scientist and inventor ‒ discovery of X-rays Stanko Popović 1, 2 1 Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia 2 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia email: spopovic@phy.hr Miraculous inventions and scientific achievements have made Nikola Tesla, the Croatian inventor (The New Yorker 2013), world-famous. There are hundreds of books and papers dealing with the life and work of Tesla that confirm the above statement. In 1960 the term tesla, T, was given to the SI unit of the magnetic field. Starting in 1894 Tesla experimented with mysterious shadowgraphs similar to those that later were studied by W. C. Rontgen (L. I. Anderson, 21st Century Books, 1994). Tesla was aware of an unknown very special radiation that had damaged film in his lab, later identified as Röntgen rays or X-rays. Unfortunately, much of his early research was lost when his lab in New York was burnt down on March 13, 1895. Rontgen published his discovery on November 8, 1895. In the beginning of 1896 Tesla proceeded with experiments in X-ray imaging, designing a high energy unipolar vacuum tube that had no target electrode. The electrons were accelerated by peaks of the electric field produced by the high-voltage Tesla coil. Tesla realized that the source of X-rays was the site of the first impact of electrons within the tube. Tesla devised several experimental setups to produce X-rays, that were of much greater power than obtainable with ordinary apparatus. He stated that the cathodic stream was composed of small particles, and that the produced X-rays were transverse waves possessing many properties of light. Tesla described his experiments in a series of papers in Electrical Review New York, the first paper appearing in March 11, 1896. Tesla gave Rontgen full credit for his discovery. Rontgen congratulated Tesla on his sophisticated images, wondering how he had achieved such impressive results. Tesla commented on physiological hazards in working with X-rays and gave recommendations for protection. Therefore, there is much evidence that confirm the legacy of Tesla in discovery of X-rays. His lecture before the New York Academy of Sciences in 1897 validated to some degree his primacy in research of X-rays. One will never know who would have won the Nobel prize for the discovery of X-rays if Tesla's work had not been lost in fire. The least one can do is to appreciate his pioneer work in this field (Hrabak, M. et al. (2008). RadioGraphics 28, 1189).

discovery of X-rays, Nikola Tesla

Doi: 10.1107/S2053273315097478