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This picture shows the hand of Clarence Madison Dally (1865-1904), an American glassblower who worked with Thomas Edison in his work on X-ray tubes, which he made on his own hands and died after developing an early radiation cancer. The radiation also resulted in him having both of his arms amputated in an unsuccessful attempt to save his life. Shortly after his death, Thomas Edison stopped his research on X-rays.
Following the work of Wilhelm Röntgen on X-rays in 1895, Clarence and his brother Charles worked on the development of the Edison’s X-ray focus tube, developing the fluoroscope using calcium tungstate. The Edison fluoroscope produced sharper and intense images than the Röntgen fluoroscope, which basically used barium platinocyanide. At the time, the intensity levels of X-rays produced were not believed to be so fatal and dangerous. However, Edison noticed how “the X-ray had affected poisonously my assistant, Mr. Dally.”
By 1900, Clarence Dally was severely suffering from radiation damage to his both hands and face sufficient to require time off work. Due to him being a right handed, he used his left hand to be affected before his right hand. In 1902, one lesion on his left wrist was treated unsuccessfully with multiple skin grafts and eventually his left hand was amputated. Ulceration on his right hand necessitated the amputation of four fingers.
These procedures failed to halt the spread of his carcinoma, and despite the amputation of his arms at the elbow and shoulder, he died from mediastinal cancer in the year 1904. Clarence dally is thought to be the first American to die from the effects of experimentation with radiation. Following this, Edison stopped research on X-rays.
In 1903, Edison said “Don’t talk to me about X-rays; I am afraid of them.”
During the 1930s, 40s and 50s, most American shoe stores featured shoe-fitting fluoroscopes that used X-rays to enable customers to see the bones of their feet, it wasn’t until the 1950s that this practice was considered to a risky business.
Wilhelm Röntgen received several accolades for his work, including the first Noble Prize in Physics in 1901, yet he never tried to patent his discovery. Today X-ray technology is widely used in medicine, material analysis and devices such as airport security scanners.
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