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The Wright Brothers for Kids | Bedtime History

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Biography of the Wright Brothers for Children: Orville and Wilbur Wright for Kids - FreeSchool

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In 1903, two U.S. inventors named Wilbur and Orville Wright designed, built, and flew the first airplane. Some features of the Wright brothers' design are still used in...

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It's a chilly, breezy day in December 1903. Wilbur Wright stands on the beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, staring at the sky above him. Soaring overhead in an airplane is his brother Orville-he's in the middle of the world's first successful piloted engine-powered airplane flight.

Today the Wright brothers are remembered as innovative engineers, and their history-making flight inspired generations of future fliers.

GROWING UP WRIGHT

The Wright brothers were interested in flying from a young age. As children in Dayton, Ohio, their favorite toy was a small helicopter-like object that was powered by a rubber band to twirl its blades. Fascinated by the toy and its mechanics, the brothers hoped to one day build a flying machine big enough to hold them both.

As young men, the brothers went into business together, first operating a printing press, then a bicycle repair shop. Eventually the duo began selling their own custom-made bicycles to customers.

But the brothers never lost their love of flying. At the time, other aircrafts such as gliders-or aircrafts without engines-did exist, but the Wrights wanted to add more power to the objects they were flying. In 1899 the brothers began experimenting with building their own aircrafts.

UP, UP, AND AWAY

In 1900 the brothers traveled from Ohio to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to begin their flight experiments. The oceanside dunes at Kitty Hawk had regular breezes and soft, sandy landing surfaces-perfect for their studies.

The brothers first conducted tests with kites before experimenting with gliders. Both Orville and Wilbur separately piloted the gliders during their testing process.

In 1903 the brothers built an airplane called the Wright Flyer I, which featured wooden propellers the men had designed and carved themselves. The plane also had a gasoline engine.

After weeks of unsuccessful attempts, the craft-with extra fabric incorporated to increase the stiffness of the wings-took flight for 12 seconds on December 17, 1903, traveling 120 feet before landing. The plane worked! Both brothers flew the craft a few more times that day. They had flown the world's first successful piloted engine-powered airplane.

WINGS OF CHANGE

After their success in North Carolina, the Wright brothers continued to travel around the world, perfecting their craft and modifying their designs. But they did so much more, kicking off the era of modern aviation and inspiring future adventurers.

The decades following Kitty Hawk were filled with accomplishments in aviation, including the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first passenger flight. And, of course, flight didn't just stay in this world-a little over 65 years after the Wrights' famous first flight, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. The Wright brothers didn't just fly the first piloted engine-powered airplane-they created a whole new way for us to explore our world.

It's a chilly, breezy day in December 1903. Wilbur Wright stands on the beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, staring at the sky above him. Soaring overhead in an airplane is his brother Orville-he's in the middle of the world's first successful piloted engine-powered airplane flight.

Today the Wright brothers are remembered as innovative engineers, and their history-making flight inspired generations of future fliers.

GROWING UP WRIGHT

The Wright brothers were interested in flying from a young age. As children in Dayton, Ohio, their favorite toy was a small helicopter-like object that was powered by a rubber band to twirl its blades. Fascinated by the toy and its mechanics, the brothers hoped to one day build a flying machine big enough to hold them both.

As young men, the brothers went into business together, first operating a printing press, then a bicycle repair shop. Eventually the duo began selling their own custom-made bicycles to customers.

But the brothers never lost their love of flying. At the time, other aircrafts such as gliders-or aircrafts without engines-did exist, but the Wrights wanted to add more power to the objects they were flying. In 1899 the brothers began experimenting with building their own aircrafts.

UP, UP, AND AWAY

In 1900 the brothers traveled from Ohio to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to begin their flight experiments. The oceanside dunes at Kitty Hawk had regular breezes and soft, sandy landing surfaces-perfect for their studies.

The brothers first conducted tests with kites before experimenting with gliders. Both Orville and Wilbur separately piloted the gliders during their testing process.

In 1903 the brothers built an airplane called the Wright Flyer I, which featured wooden propellers the men had designed and carved themselves. The plane also had a gasoline engine.

After weeks of unsuccessful attempts, the craft-with extra fabric incorporated to increase the stiffness of the wings-took flight for 12 seconds on December 17, 1903, traveling 120 feet before landing. The plane worked! Both brothers flew the craft a few more times that day. They had flown the world's first successful piloted engine-powered airplane.

WINGS OF CHANGE

After their success in North Carolina, the Wright brothers continued to travel around the world, perfecting their craft and modifying their designs. But they did so much more, kicking off the era of modern aviation and inspiring future adventurers.

The decades following Kitty Hawk were filled with accomplishments in aviation, including the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first passenger flight. And, of course, flight didn't just stay in this world-a little over 65 years after the Wrights' famous first flight, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. The Wright brothers didn't just fly the first piloted engine-powered airplane-they created a whole new way for us to explore our world.

TEXT ADAPTED FROM WINGS OF CHANGE; THE BIRD MEN AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CONCISE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND INVENTION: AN ILLUSTRATED TIMELINE

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Find out how these inspiring aviators took to the skies.

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Garrett Morgan For Kids - Traffic Light (Black History Animated)

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Garrett Morgan was an inventor and successful businessman. Many of his inventions helped to improve public safety. These included an early form of a gas mask and a type of traffic signal.

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born on March 4, 1877, in Paris, Kentucky. His parents were freed enslaved people. Morgan left home in his teens. He moved first to Cincinnati and then to Cleveland, Ohio, where he found work repairing sewing machines. That work gave him an interest in how machines work. He later opened his own sewing equipment and repair shop. When that became successful he opened other businesses as well.

While Morgan was running his businesses he was also working on inventions. In 1914 he patented a device that he called the Morgan safety hood and smoke protector. A patent is an official document that gives an inventor control over who may use their invention. The safety hood was an early gas mask. A gas mask allows people to breathe in situations where there is a lot of smoke or dangerous chemicals in the air. In 1923 Morgan patented another safety invention. This was a T-shaped traffic signal. It had moving arms that told traffic when to stop and go. It was not the first traffic signal, but it controlled traffic better than many existing signals.

Morgan was also interested in helping his fellow African Americans. He started a newspaper to discuss issues of interest to African Americans. He was also a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Morgan died on July 27, 1963, in Cleveland.

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Garrett Morgan was an inventor and successful businessman. Many of his inventions helped to improve public safety. These included an early form of a gas mask and a type of...

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Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 - July 27, 1963) was an African-American inventor and community leader.

He is known for his inventions which included a type of protective respiratory hood (or gas mask), a traffic signal, and a hair-straightening chemical. He is also known for a heroic rescue in 1916 in which he and three others used the safety hood device he'd developed to save workers trapped within a water intake tunnel, fifty feet beneath Lake Erie. He is also credited as the first African American in Cleveland, Ohio, to own an automobile.

Early life and education

Morgan was born in 1877 in Claysville, Harrison County, Kentucky, an almost exclusively African American community outside Paris, Kentucky. His father was Sydney Morgan, a son and freed slave of Confederate Gen John H. Morgan of Morgan's Raiders. His mother, also a freed slave, was Elizabeth Reed, daughter of Rev. Garrett Reed; she was part Native American. He had at least one sibling, a brother named Frank, who helped in the 1916 Lake Erie tunnel rescue. Morgan received education up to sixth grade at Branch Elementary School in Claysville, then moved in search of work at the age of 14 to Cincinnati, Ohio.

He spent most of his teenage years working as a handyman for a Cincinnati landowner. Like many American children growing up at the turn of the century, Morgan had to quit school at a young age to work full-time. Morgan was able to hire a tutor and continue his studies while working in Cincinnati. In 1895, he moved to Cleveland, where he began repairing sewing machines for a clothing manufacturer. This experience sparked Morgan's interest in how things worked, and he built a reputation for fixing them. His first invention, developed during this period, was a belt fastener for sewing machines.

In 1907, Morgan opened a sewing machine shop. One year late, more conscious of his heritage, he helped start the Cleveland Association of Colored Men in 1908. One year later, he and his wife Mary Anne opened Morgan's Cut Rate Ladies Clothing Store. The shop, which made coats, suits, dresses, and other clothing, ultimately had 32 employees.

Around 1910, his interest in repairing other people's inventions waned, and he became interested in developing some of his own. He received his first patent in 1912.

In 1916, Morgan rescued workers trapped in a water intake tunnel 50 ft (15 m) beneath Lake Erie, using a hood fashioned to protect his eyes from smoke and featuring a series of air tubes that hung near the ground to draw clean air beneath the rising smoke.

He received a patent for his smoke hood design in 1914, the year he launched the National Safety Device Company. It is unknown whether the smoke hood brought him any commercial success. No sales figures have been found but his use of guerrilla marketing, going to different venues and demonstrating his smoke hood by strapping it on and entering a smoke-filled teepee, certainly demonstrated his faith in his own invention.

In 1913 he incorporated hair care products into his growing list of patents and launched the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company, which sold hair care products, including his patented hair straightening cream, a hair coloring, and a hair straightening comb invented by Morgan.

Later in life he developed glaucoma and by 1943 was functionally blind. He had poor health the rest of his life, but continued to work on his inventions. One of his last was a self-extinguishing cigarette, which used a small plastic pellet filled with water placed just before the filter. He died on July 27, 1963, at age 86 and was buried at the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

Products and inventions

Hair care products

Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish that prevented the needle from burning fabric as it sewed. In 1905, Morgan accidentally discovered that the liquid could also straighten hair. He made the liquid into a cream and launched the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company to market it. He also made a black hair oil dye and invented a curved-tooth comb for hair straightening in 1910.

Garrett Morgan invented a safety hood smoke protection device after seeing firefighters struggling from the smoke they encountered in the line of duty. His device used a wet sponge to filter out smoke and cool the air. It also took advantage of the way smoke and fumes tend to rise to higher positions while leaving a layer of more breathable air below, by using an air intake tube that dangled near the floor. The safety hood used a series of tubes to draw clean air of the lowest level the tubes could extend to. Smoke, being hotter than the air around it, rises, and by drawing air from the ground, the Safety Hood provided the user with a way to perform emergency respiration. He filed for a patent on the device in 1912, and founded a company called the National Safety Device Company in 1914 to market it. He was able to sell his invention around the country, sometimes using the tactic of having a hired white actor take credit rather than revealing himself as to its inventor. For demonstrations of the device, he sometimes adopted the disguise of "Big Chief Mason", a purported full-blooded Indian from the Walpole Island Indian Reserve in Canada. He would demonstrate the device by building a noxious fire fueled by tar, sulfur, formaldehyde and manure inside an enclosed tent. Disguised as Big Chief Mason, he would enter the tent full of black smoke, and would remain there for 20 minutes before emerging unharmed.

His safety hood device was simple and effective, whereas the other devices in use at the time were generally difficult to put on, excessively complex, unreliable, or ineffective. It was patented and awarded a gold medal two years later by the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Morgan's safety hood was used to save many lives during the period of its use. By World War I, his breathing device was refined to carry its own air supply, making it a gas mask. However, upon their entry into the First World War, the United States Army adopted the British Small Box Respirator and French M2 Respirator as their standard anti-gas equipment, the former invented by Newfoundlander Cluny MacPherson.

He also developed later models that incorporated an airbag that could hold about 15 minutes of fresh air.

His invention became known nationally when he led a rescue that saved several men's lives after a July 24, 1916 tunnel explosion under Lake Erie. Before Morgan arrived, two previous rescue attempts had failed. The attempted rescuers had become victims themselves by entering the tunnel and not returning. Morgan was roused in the middle of the night after one of the members of the rescue team who had seen a demonstration of his device sent a messenger to convince him to come and to bring as many of his hoods as he could. He arrived on the scene still wearing his pajamas, and brought his brother Frank and four of the hoods with him. Most of the rescuers on the scene were initially skeptical of his device, so he and his brother went into the tunnel along with two other volunteers, and succeeded in pulling out two men from the previous rescue attempts. He emerged carrying a victim on his back, and his brother followed just behind with another. Others joined in after his team succeeded, and rescued several more. His device was also used to retrieve the bodies of the rescuers that did not survive. Morgan personally made four trips into the tunnel during the rescue, and his health was affected for years afterward from the fumes he encountered there. Cleveland's newspapers and city officials initially ignored Morgan's act of heroism as the first to rush into the tunnel for the rescue and his key role as the provider of the equipment that made the rescue possible, and it took years for the city to recognize his contributions. City officials requested the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission to issue medals to several of the men involved in the rescue, but excluded Morgan from their request. He believed that the omission was racially motivated. Later, in 1917, a group of citizens of Cleveland tried to correct for the omission by presenting him with a diamond-studded gold medal. After the heroic rescue Morgan's company received order requests from fire departments all over the country. However, the national news contained photographs of him, and officials in a number of southern cities canceled their existing orders when they discovered he was black.

He was also given a medal from the International Association of Fire Engineers, which made him an honorary member.

Morgan's invention of the safety hood was featured on the television show Inventions that Shook the World and Mysteries at the Museum (S08E05).

Traffic signal

The first American-made automobiles were introduced to consumers just before the turn of the twentieth century, and pedestrians, bicycles, animal-drawn wagons and motor vehicles all had to share the same roads. To deal with the growing problem of traffic accidents, a number of different versions of traffic signaling devices began to be developed simultaneously, starting around 1913.

Morgan had witnessed a serious accident at an intersection, and he filed a patent for a traffic control device having a third "warning" position in 1922. The patent was granted in 1923, though this was not the first system with a warning, a three-signal system being invented in 1920 by William Potts, and several other previous systems some of which had audible warnings.

Community leadership

In 1908, he co-founded the Cleveland Association of Colored Men, which later merged with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Morgan served as its treasurer. He was a member of the NAACP and donated money to Historically Black Colleges and Universities colleges.

Morgan, in 1920, founded the Cleveland Call, a weekly newspaper and, in 1938, subsequently participated in its merger that created the Cleveland Call and Post newspaper. Morgan purchased a farm near Wakeman, Ohio, and upon that land build the Wakeman Country Club, open to Blacks, unlike most country clubs then.

Morgan was a member of the Prince Hall Freemasons, in Excelsior Lodge No. 11 of Cleveland, Ohio. He belonged to Antioch Baptist Church.

In 1931, seeing that the city was neither properly addressing the needs of its African American citizens, he ran for a seat on the Cleveland City Council as an independent, but was not elected.

Personal life

He married Madge Nelson in 1896, only to divorce in 1898. In 1908 he and Mary Hasek were married and together, they had three children: John P.; Garrett A., Jr. and Cosmo.

Morgan died in Cleveland in 1963, where he was interred in Lake View Cemetery.

Awards and recognitions

At the Emancipation Centennial Celebration in Chicago, Illinois, in August 1963 (one month after his death), Morgan was nationally recognized.

In the Cleveland, Ohio area, the Garrett A. Morgan Cleveland School of Science and the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant have been named in his honor. An elementary school in Chicago was also named after him. An elementary school bearing his name opened in the fall of 2016 in Lexington, Kentucky. In Prince George's County, Maryland, there is a street named Garrett A. Morgan Boulevard (formerly Summerfield Boulevard until 2002) and the adjacent Metro stop (Morgan Boulevard) also bears his name.

Morgan was included in the 2002 book 100 Greatest African Americans by Molefi Kete Asante.

Morgan is an honorary member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Documentary

Morgan is featured in Bayer Mack's 2019 documentary, No Lye: An American Beauty Story, that chronicles the rise and decline of the black-owned ethnic beauty industry.

In Spanish: Garrett Augustus Morgan para niños

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Long before roads needed traffic lights, railways were using a system of signals to control train traffic. In the early railways, a single track was used for both up-going and down-going trains, and safety depended on spacing the arrival and departure of trains according to time intervals.
These signals consisted of a ball and something that looked like a kite. When the kite was raised on top it indicated danger while if the ball was raised, it indicated the all clear.

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Who is Mary Anderson? Mary Elizabeth Anderson was best known as the inventor of the first effective windshield wiper. She was an American rancher, real estate developer, and viticulturist and she lived from February 19, 1866, to June 27, 1953.

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Mary Elizabeth Anderson (February 19, 1866 - June 27, 1953) was an American real estate developer, rancher, viticulturist, and inventor of the windshield wiper blade. On November 10, 1903 Anderson was granted her first patent for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled from inside the car, called the windshield wiper.

Mary Anderson was born in Burton Hill Plantation, Greene County, Alabama, at the start of Reconstruction in 1866. Her parents were John C. and Rebecca Anderson. Anderson was one of at least two daughters. The other daughter was Fannie, who remained close to Anderson all her life. Their father died in 1870, and the young family was able to live on the proceeds of John's estate. In 1889 she moved with her widowed mother and sister to the booming town of Birmingham, Alabama. Anderson's education is unknown. She was never married and did not have any children.

In Birmingham, Anderson became a real estate developer soon after settling and built the Fairmont Apartments on Highland Avenue. In 1893, Anderson left Birmingham to operate a cattle ranch and vineyard in Fresno, California. In 1898, she returned to Birmingham to help care for an ailing aunt. Anderson and her aunt moved into the Fairmont Apartments with Anderson's mother, her sister Fannie, and Fannie's husband G. P. Thornton. Anderson's ailing aunt brought a trunk with her that contained a collection of gold and jewelry. From that time forward, Anderson's family lived comfortably.

Invention (windshield wipers)

In a visit to New York City in the winter of 1902, Anderson sat in a trolley car on a frosty day. Anderson observed that the trolley car driver struggled to see past the windows because of the falling sleet. The trolley car's front window was designed for bad-weather visibility, but its multi-pane windshield system worked very poorly. Therefore, to clear the sights, the driver needed to open the window, lean out of the vehicle, or stop the car to go outside in order to wipe the windscreen with his hands. Anderson, who was not an engineer but an entrepreneur, identified the problem and its opportunity. She envisioned a windshield wiper blade that the trolley driver could operate from the inside. At that time, it rarely occurred to anyone else to eliminate the problem. It was something drivers simply accepted and dealt with.

When she returned to Alabama she hired a designer for a hand-operated device to keep a windshield clear and had a local company produce a working model. She applied for, and in 1903 was granted, a 17-year patent for a windshield wiper. The patent application was filed on June 18, 1903. On November 10, 1903, the United States Patent Office awarded Anderson patent number 743,801 for her Window Cleaning device.

Her device consisted of a lever inside the vehicle that controlled a rubber blade on the outside of the windshield. The lever could be operated to cause the spring-loaded arm to move back and forth across the windshield. A counterweight was used to ensure contact between the wiper and the window. The device could be easily removed if desired after the winter was over. Similar devices had been made earlier, but Anderson's was the first windshield clearing device to be effective. Anderson's simple mechanism and basic design have remained much the same, but unlike today's windscreen wipers, Anderson's could be removed when not needed.

In 1903 when Anderson applied for the patent, cars were not very popular. Henry Ford 's Model A automobile had not been manufactured yet. Therefore, when Anderson tried to sell the rights to her invention through a noted Canadian firm of Dinning and Eckenstein in 1905, they rejected her application. They argued, "we do not consider it to be of such commercial value as would warrant our undertaking its sale." Furthermore, many could not see the value of her invention and stressed the risk that the driver would be distracted by operating the device and the moving wipers.

By 1913 the automobile manufacturing business had grown exponentially and windshield wipers were standard equipment. In 1922, Cadillac became the first car manufacturer to adopt them as standard equipment. However, Anderson never profited from her invention, the patent expiring in 1920.

In 1917, Charlotte Bridgewood patented the "electric storm windshield cleaner," the first automatic wiper system that used rollers instead of blades. Like Anderson, Bridgewood never made any money from her invention. Sara-Scott Wingo, rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Richmond, Va., and Anderson's great-great niece suspect Anderson's invention never went anywhere because Anderson was an independent woman. Wingo said in an interview with NPR News, "She didn't have a father. She didn't have a husband. And the world was kind of run by men back then."

By the 1920s, Anderson's brother-in-law had died, and Anderson was again living in the Fairmont Apartments in Birmingham with her sister Fannie and her mother. She continued to manage the Fairmont Apartments until her death at the age of 87. At the time of her death, she was the oldest member of South Highland Presbyterian Church. She died at her summer home in Monteagle, Tennessee. Her funeral was conducted by.Dr Frank A Mathes at South Highland and she was buried at Elmwood Cemetery.

In 2011 Anderson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

In Spanish: Mary Anderson (inventora) para niños

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Learn Mary Anderson (inventor) facts for kids

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The Windshield Wiper: A Female Innovation

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Invention Of X-Ray | The Dr. Binocs Show | Best Learning Video for Kids | Preschool Learning

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X-Rays Explained for Kids! | Discover the Mystery of November 8th and the History of X-Rays

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(1845-1923). Recipient of the first Nobel prize for physics in 1901, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen is the discoverer of X rays (see X rays). His achievement heralded the age of modern physics and transformed medical practice.

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was born on March 27, 1845, in Lennep, Prussia. Educated in The Netherlands and Switzerland, Roentgen obtained his doctoral degree in physics at the University of Zürich in 1869. He conducted research and taught at the universities of Strasbourg, Giessen, Würzburg, and Munich.

In 1895 Roentgen began experiments at the University of Würzburg with an electric current flow in a partially evacuated glass tube (known as a cathode-ray tube). He noticed that, whenever the tube was in operation, a piece of barium platinocyanide in line with it gave off light. Roentgen theorized that the interaction of electrons striking the tube's glass wall formed an unknown radiation that caused the fluorescence. He called the mysterious phenomenon X radiation, or X rays. Further experiments revealed that X radiation produces an image on photographic plates and penetrates many materials such as paper, wood, certain metals, and living tissue. For the first time physicians had a nonsurgical tool to see inside the body. The medical and scientific uses of X rays spread quickly throughout Europe and the United States.

After receiving the Nobel prize for his work, Roentgen continued to conduct research in several fields including elasticity, fluids, and crystals. Roentgen died on February 10, 1923, in Munich, Germany.

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(1845-1923). Recipient of the first Nobel prize for physics in 1901, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen is the discoverer of X rays (see X rays). His achievement heralded the...

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Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (; German pronunciation: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈʁœntɡən]; 27 March 1845 - 10 February 1923) was a German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. In honour of Röntgen's accomplishments, in 2004 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes, after him. The unit of measurement roentgen was also named after him.

Biographical history

He was born to Friedrich Conrad Röntgen, a German merchant and cloth manufacturer, and Charlotte Constanze Frowein. At age three his family moved to the Netherlands where his family lived. Röntgen attended high school at Utrecht Technical School in Utrecht, Netherlands. He followed courses at the Technical School for almost two years. In 1865, he was unfairly expelled from high school when one of his teachers intercepted a caricature of one of the teachers, which was drawn by someone else.

Without a high school diploma, Röntgen could only attend university in the Netherlands as a visitor. In 1865, he tried to attend Utrecht University without having the necessary credentials required for a regular student. Upon hearing that he could enter the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich (today known as the ETH Zurich), he passed the entrance examination and began studies there as a student of mechanical engineering. In 1869, he graduated with a PhD from the University of Zurich; once there, he became a favourite student of Professor August Kundt, whom he followed to the newly founded German Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität in Strasbourg.

In 1874, Röntgen became a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg. In 1875, he became a professor at the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim, Württemberg. He returned to Strasbourg as a professor of physics in 1876, and in 1879, he was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Giessen. In 1888, he obtained the physics chair at the University of Würzburg, and in 1900 at the University of Munich, by special request of the Bavarian government.

Röntgen had family in Iowa in the United States and planned to emigrate. He accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York City and bought transatlantic tickets, before the outbreak of World War I changed his plans. He remained in Munich for the rest of his career.

During 1895, at his laboratory in the Würzburg Physical Institute of the University of Würzburg, Röntgen was investigating the external effects from the various types of vacuum tube equipment-apparatuses from Heinrich Hertz, Johann Hittorf, William Crookes, Nikola Tesla and Philipp von Lenard-when an electrical discharge is passed through them. In early November, he was repeating an experiment with one of Lenard's tubes in which a thin aluminium window had been added to permit the cathode rays to exit the tube but a cardboard covering was added to protect the aluminium from damage by the strong electrostatic field that produces the cathode rays. Röntgen knew that the cardboard covering prevented light from escaping, yet he observed that the invisible cathode rays caused a fluorescent effect on a small cardboard screen painted with barium platinocyanide when it was placed close to the aluminium window. It occurred to Röntgen that the Crookes-Hittorf tube, which had a much thicker glass wall than the Lenard tube, might also cause this fluorescent effect.

In the late afternoon of 8 November 1895, Röntgen was determined to test his idea. He carefully constructed a black cardboard covering similar to the one he had used on the Lenard tube. He covered the Crookes-Hittorf tube with the cardboard and attached electrodes to a Ruhmkorff coil to generate an electrostatic charge. Before setting up the barium platinocyanide screen to test his idea, Röntgen darkened the room to test the opacity of his cardboard cover. As he passed the Ruhmkorff coil charge through the tube, he determined that the cover was light-tight and turned to prepare the next step of the experiment. It was at this point that Röntgen noticed a faint shimmering from a bench a few feet away from the tube. To be sure, he tried several more discharges and saw the same shimmering each time. Striking a match, he discovered the shimmering had come from the location of the barium platinocyanide screen he had been intending to use next.

Röntgen speculated that a new kind of ray might be responsible. 8 November was a Friday, so he took advantage of the weekend to repeat his experiments and made his first notes. In the following weeks, he ate and slept in his laboratory as he investigated many properties of the new rays he temporarily termed "X-rays", using the mathematical designation ("X") for something unknown. The new rays came to bear his name in many languages as "Röntgen rays" (and the associated X-ray radiograms as "Röntgenograms").

At one point while he was investigating the ability of various materials to stop the rays, Röntgen brought a small piece of lead into position while a discharge was occurring. Röntgen thus saw the first radiographic image: his own flickering ghostly skeleton on the barium platinocyanide screen. He later reported that it was at this point that he decided to continue his experiments in secrecy, fearing for his professional reputation if his observations were in error.

About six weeks after his discovery, he took a picture-a radiograph -using X-rays of his wife Anna Bertha's hand. When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my death!" He later took a better picture of his friend Albert von Kölliker's hand at a public lecture.

Röntgen's original paper, "On A New Kind of Rays" ( Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen), was published on 28 December 1895. On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported Röntgen's discovery of a new type of radiation. Röntgen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Würzburg after his discovery. He also received the Rumford Medal of the British Royal Society in 1896, jointly with Philipp Lenard, who had already shown that a portion of the cathode rays could pass through a thin film of a metal such as aluminium. Röntgen published a total of three papers on X-rays between 1895 and 1897. Today, Röntgen is considered the father of diagnostic radiology, the medical speciality which uses imaging to diagnose disease.

A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.

Personal life

Röntgen was married to Anna Bertha Ludwig for 47 years until her death in 1919 at age 80. In 1866 they met in Zürich at Anna's father's café, Zum Grünen Glas. They got engaged in 1869 and wed in Apeldoorn, Netherlands on 7 July 1872; the delay was due to Anna being six years Wilhelm's senior and his father not approving of her age or humble background. Their marriage began with financial difficulties as family support from Röntgen had ceased. They raised one child, Josephine Bertha Ludwig, whom they adopted at age 6 after her father, Anna's only brother, died in 1887.

He inherited two million Reichsmarks after his father's death. For ethical reasons, Röntgen did not seek patents for his discoveries, holding the view that it should be publicly available without charge. After receiving his Nobel prize money, Röntgen donated the 50,000 Swedish krona to research at the University of Würzburg. Although he accepted the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, he rejected an offer of lower nobility, or Niederer Adelstitel, denying the preposition von (meaning "of") as a nobiliary particle (i.e., von Röntgen). With the inflation following World War I, Röntgen fell into bankruptcy, spending his final years at his country home at Weilheim, near Munich. Röntgen died on 10 February 1923 from carcinoma of the intestine, also known as colorectal cancer. In keeping with his will, all his personal and scientific correspondence were destroyed upon his death. He was member in the Dutch Reformed Church.

Honours and awards

In 1901, Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics. The award was officially "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him". Röntgen donated the 50,000 Swedish krona reward from his Nobel Prize to research at his university, the University of Würzburg. Like Marie and Pierre Curie, Röntgen refused to take out patents related to his discovery of X-rays, as he wanted society as a whole to benefit from practical applications of the phenomenon. Röntgen was also awarded Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science in 1900.

His honors include:

Rumford Medal (1896)

Matteucci Medal (1896)

Elliott Cresson Medal (1897)

Nobel Prize for Physics (1901)

In November 2004 IUPAC named element number 111 roentgenium (Rg) in his honour. IUPAP adopted the name in November 2011.

In 1907 he became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Today, in Remscheid-Lennep, 40 kilometres east of Röntgen's birthplace in Düsseldorf, is the Deutsches Röntgen-Museum.
In Würzburg, where he discovered X-rays, a non-profit organization maintains his laboratory and provides guided tours to the Röntgen Memorial Site.

World Radiography Day: World Radiography Day is an annual event promoting the role of medical imaging in modern healthcare. It is celebrated on 8 November each year, coinciding with the anniversary of the Röntgen's discovery. It was first introduced in 2012 as a joint initiative between the European Society of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, and the American College of Radiology.

Röntgen Peak in Antarctica is named after Wilhelm Röntgen.

Minor planet 6401 Roentgen is named after him.

In Spanish: Wilhelm Röntgen para niños

German inventors and discoverers

Röntgen Memorial Site

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Karl Drais Invents the Two-Wheeled Bicycle- the First Personalized Mechanical Transport : History of Information

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Karl Drais Invents the Two-Wheeled Bicycle- the First Personalized Mechanical Transport

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Special delivery

Over the past 30 years, bicycle delivery services have developed into an important industry, especially in cities, where the couriers have earned a reputation for their high speed and traffic-weaving skills.

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Special delivery Over the past 30 years, bicycle delivery services have developed into an important industry, especially in cities, where the couriers have earned a reputation for their high speed and traffic-weaving skills.