Pupin's intensifying fluorescent screen for X-rays
Pantalla fluorescente intensificadora de rayos X (Pupin)
- Date
- 1896 · confidence medium
- Place
- Columbia University, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Mihajlo Pupin
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
In January 1896, soon after Röntgen's discovery, Pupin placed a fluorescent screen over the plate and cut the exposure time from an hour to a few seconds. It is a precursor of the intensifying screens of radiography.
Priority is disputed with Thomas Edison, who that year presented the calcium tungstate fluoroscope, and other experimenters. The account comes from Pupin's memoirs and the 1896 press, so the date and scope are less certain.
What it led to
- radiography with clinically useful exposure times
- intensifying screens in modern radiology