The First X-Ray Experiments in Malta
1896 (Malta)
1 photograph; 13 x 18 cm
Richard Ellis
Archive, Malta
n/a
In 1895 the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923) observed a new form of radiation, while performing experiments with vacuum tubes. He provisionally called it X-Rays. In the following days he frantically investigated the properties of these rays, discovering that they allowed the bone structure inside the body to become visible. By the end of that year, the remarkable discovery was made public and news about the properties of the new rays spread rapidly.
News of the ‘New Photography’ appeared in Malta on 12 March1896. By early November and probably earlier, experiments with the new rays were being carried out by John Ellis of the photographic firm of Richard Ellis.Born in England, Richard Ellis (1842-1924) arrived in Malta in 1861 and was a pioneer of photography on the island.
The photograph shown here documents some of the first X-Ray images produced in Malta. On the 5 November, Mr. Ellis sent a letter to the Chief Secretary of the Government with “copies done by the X-rays of this weeks experiments”, including those of an aluminium cigarette case, a gold chain, a ring, a leaf, a tortoise shell money case, a cardboard case, a wooden box of which the grain is plainly seen, a silver coin and “a hand with cut finger."
The last item is of the greatest interest as it records the first known instance of an X-ray photograph with a medical slant produced in Malta.