JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
In the long list of "photographic firsts" the following is a rare case--a first that wasn't a first that may have became a first, though no one recognized it as such until the true first was recognized. Huh?
This is the story of Arthur W. Goodspeed (1860-1943) and William Jennings (1860-1946) and their brief brush with immortality. While using a Crookes tube and photographing electric sparks and brush discharges in their lab at the University of Pennsylvania in 1890 they produced a photograph of unknown certainty and imagery. They did not pursue the anomaly and stowed the photographic plate away in archives. After the Roentgen discovery in 1895 and seeing the first results in early 1896 they knew exactly what it was they had photographed, and just hadn't recognized that what they were seeing was revolutionary. They retrieved and published the photograph along with their story in Science on February 14, 1896 (vol 3 #59), and a short account of the narrative was published in Scientific American on April 11, 1896, along with the photograph. To their great credit the two physicists made no claim to discovery:
- “We can claim no merit for the discovery—for no discovery was made. All we ask is that you remember, gentlemen, that six years ago. day for day, the first picture in the world by cathodic ray was taken in the Physical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania."
I reprint the article and the photo below.
"RADIOGRAPHY.. In the March number of the Red and Blue, of the University of Pennsylvania, is given an account of Roentgen photography and some experiments made at the university in the same direction by Dr. Arthur W. Goodspeed. assistant professor of physics. These experiments were successful repetitions of the experiments of Roentgen and others, together with original work ; but the item of greatest interest was contained in the last clause of the article referred to, which we produce, together with cut of the first shadow picture, for which we are indebted to the magazine above mentioned. In the year 1890, Mr. Jennings, of Philadelphia, had associated himself with Dr. Goodspeed in experiments on spark photography. One evening, the 22nd of February. 1890, at the close of work. with the table still littered by plate holders and apparatus, Dr. Goodspeed brought out the Crookes tubes for Mr. Jennings’ amusement. Next day that gentleman wrote that he had had a. curious failure among his plates—a negative spotted by two disks; but since no one could explain the phenomenon, comparatively uninteresting as it was, the plate was thrown aside and forgotten. Six years later after the discovery of the Roentgen rays, it was recalled to mind and recovered. A duplicate was prepared under exactly the same circumstances; both plates exhibited the same indications of genuineness—the sharp line at one edge of the disk. the dull line of shadow at the farther edge. These photographs the Red and Blue has the honor of presenting for the first time."
"It was in a lecture on the evening of University Day that Dr. Goodspeed told the story, and concluded thus: “We can claim no merit for the discovery—for no discovery was made. All we ask is that you remember, gentlemen, that six years ago. day for day, the first picture in the world by cathodic ray was taken in the Physical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania."
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