When X-rays were first announced to the world in late 1895, they seemed almost miraculous. For the first time, doctors and experimenters could look beneath the skin without a knife, seeing bones, bullets, and hidden injuries by means of invisible rays.
The discovery spread quickly, and by 1896 and 1897, X-ray machines were being used in medical offices, laboratories, public demonstrations, and private experiments. But the early operators did not yet understand the danger of repeated or prolonged exposure.
Protective shielding was crude or absent, exposure times could be very long, and patients were sometimes placed close to the tube while experimenters tried to get a clear image…