Roentgen | Fotoeins Fotografie

24T89 Giessen, to say hi and goodbye

(E88)

On a quiet overcast Sunday morning, I’m on a regional train for an hour north from Frankfurt to the university town of Giessen (Gießen). At their old cemetery Alter Friedhof is the grave site of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, discoverer of X-rays. I visited his birth town of Lennep two days ago on travel day 87. Röntgen was also professor of physics at the University of Giessen from 1879 to 1888.

It’s where I’ve come to say hi and goodbye: both to Röntgen, and to 90 consecutive days “on the road”. Tomorrow, I must (but reluctantly) fly out from Europe to Canada.

*Modest entrance to Giessen’s Alter Friedhof (Old Cemetery).*

*There’s plenty of signage leading the way.*

*Memorial grave for Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen, Professor in Giessen from 1879 to 1888.*

*The first two names are Wilhelm’s parents, followed by his wife Berta, and lastly, Wilhelm himself.*

*In Giessen’s Theaterpark is a memorial statue to Röntgen (north side).*

*South side, with Röntgen’s calm cool gaze.*

I made the photos above with an iPhone15 on 4 Aug 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T87 Röntgen’s birth town, Lennep

(E86: Lennep b. Remscheid)

Engineer and physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen is known as the person who discovered X-ray radiation in 1895. Also called X-rays, they’re better known in German-speaking countries as “Röntgenstrahlung” (Röntgen radiation). The discovery would net Röntgen the world’s first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

I’d seen a big display about Röntgen’s experiments and apparatus in Würzburg, but I’d learned a day trip from Cologne would take me to Röntgen’s birth town of Lennep.

*The house in Lennep where W.C. Röntgen was born. He was only here for a few years before the family moved to the Netherlands.*

*1920 commemorative plaque by the city of Lennep for this house.*

One of the 1st ever X-ray images: left hand of his wife Anna Ludwig Röntgen, 22 December 1895. Despite initial skepticism, one implication would soon be obvious: X-rays to examine and diagnose “inside” the body without having to “operate.”

*Not far from the Röntgen birth house is the Deutsches Röntgen Museum (German Röntgen Museum) with ‘X’ in front.*

*1901 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Röntgen: declaration in Swedish, one.*

*1901 Nobel Prize declaration in Swedish, two.*

*Siemens Stabilipan machine, with aluminium, copper, or thorium X-ray sources.*

*Replica, dentistry practice. (Zahnarzt = Zahn (tooth) + Arzt (doctor) = tooth doctor, or dentist.)*

*“Ich dachte nicht, ich untersuchte.” (I wasn’t thinking, I was investigating.)*

Lennep (as part of the larger Remscheid) can be reached by S7 train from either Solingen or Wuppertal; both in turn are easily reached from Köln.

I made the photos above with an iPhone15 on 2 Aug 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Würzburg: Röntgen, X-rays, & 1st Nobel Prize in Physics

On my list and map, I placed the museum’s location as a “possible” to visit in the city. If I had time, I’d swing by and have a look, appealing to my fondness for science and the history of science.

Many arrive in Würzburg to visit the Residenz UNESCO world heritage site. On a daytrip from Frankfurt am Main, I duly visited the Residenz, and easily completed my initial visit requirements, as I knew I would. That’s when my inner voice (a.k.a., the spirit of B.Sc. ’90) reminded me insistently the museum was “simply and conveniently” on the return walk to the city’s central train station to fully complete my visit requirements.

I walked north from the Residenz, and followed the signs into the building for the Röntgen-Gedächtnisstätte (Röntgen Memorial) where X-rays were discovered. Standing inside the former laboratory space, I’m surrounded by artifacts, books, papers, tubes, equipment, and photographs.

I also feel a part of my undergraduate physics education has come full circle.

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