In 1895 Röntgen published an article in a German medical magazine entitled “About a new type of rays”. Not knowing what to call them, he gave them the name X-rays, a name that was used in English immediately. It appeared in a translation of exactly this article in the following year.
In Germany it had been suggested almost immediately that the X-rays be named Roentgen’s rays, after its discoverer. This was also used for a while in English, but the simpler to pronounce, easier word was the one that gained wide acceptance, although in Germany the rays are still named after its discoverer.
And it was because of Röntgen’s generosity that what he had discovered was used widely in the medical world. He refused to patent his discovery stated that “discoveries belong to the general public and should not be reserved for individual companies on the basis of patents and licences”.
The idea of having excellent eyesight or X-ray vision first came up in 1896 where a joking comment in the St. Louis Courier of Medicine referred to the ability of a journalist to see through even the closed doors of a hospital. And it was used frequently in this sense afterwards.
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