Three weeks ago I fell and injured my right hand and thumb. At first it didn’t hurt all that much but after three or four days, I noticed that my thumb was really swollen. I thought it might be broken so off to the doctor I went. The first thing my doctor did was to x-ray my hand to confirm that it wasn’t broken Luckily, it was just a sprain. But, I was told that a sprain takes longer to heal than a break. Then I developed ‘trigger’ thumb. Now, I’m wearing a splint! It’s not easy using only one hand so, maybe there is no ‘luckily’ here. A break or a sprain -- either way it spells ouch!
However, this little mishap made me think about x-rays and how they got their name. After I left the doctor’s office, hand throbbing, I decided to do a little research on the subject of x-rays and found that in 1895, German inventor, Wilhelm Roentgen was conducting experiments with the conduction of electrical charges through gases in a vacuum tube. Much to his astonishment, Roentgen observed that radiation passed through objects that were usually opaque. The applications were obvious, but Roentgen didn’t understand how or why radiation worked. For this reason, Roentgen named his invention x Strahlen (X-ray). He used “X” as in algebraic formulas, a modest admission that he couldn’t explain his own discovery.
I have no reason for passing this information on other than to kill time while I’m waiting for my thumb to heal. And your right, should I really be on the computer, typing with a sprained hand and thumb? Perhaps, I need to spend less time thinking about inventions and more time talking to God. Less time writing about nonsense stuff and more time in knee-mail!
Oh, thanks to my friend Betty for giving me the book “Who Put The Butter in Butterfly? (And other fearless investigations into our illogical language) by David Feldman. Both Mr. Feldman and Betty helped me in writing this blog.
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