Notebook: Fluoroscopy Historical Timeline
Name_______________
Date
1895 Roentgen
1898 Thomas Edison
1904 Dally
1922 G. Pfahler
1937 Irving Langmuir
1943 H.M. Parker
1948 J.W. Coltman
1953 Westhouse Company
1950S Shoe fitting device viewed from
1950s Medical Doctors look into the screen
Occurrence
First to discover x-rays and saw
his fingers move (live)
Used Aluminum filter as
protective device
Death due to cumulative
overexposure
Film badges were made for
personnel monitoring of radiation
Patented the image intensifier
4R/wk. shown to cause injury
Improved the design so that the
image brightness increased 1000
times better
Manufactured the first
commercial use of image
intensifier
above by salesman and parents
while person trying on the shoes
to make sure they fit, stood on x-
ray source to see how the shoe
fits
directly so they would sit in a
darkroom for 15 minutes then go
and do the fluoroscopy exam and
they eye could focus and see the
dim images
Notebook: Fluoroscopy Historical Timeline
Name_______________
In a narrative, list and describe the terminology of basic visual physiology and determine its
importance in radiology image illumination.

Fluoroscopist had to dark adapt meaning activating rods in the peripheral of the retina due to
the images being so dim. So, they sat in a dark room for 15 minutes or wore red lens goggles
while viewing the fluoroscopic screen. The rods are in the periphery of the retina layer and are
sensitive to low light and cannot respond to intense light of more than 2 LUX. The cones are
within fovea centralis within a pocket and are less sensitive to light and can respond to
intense light about 100 LUX. Cones and Rods are both photoreceptors. The illumination that the
eye can see is measured in lumen or candela also known as LUX. Cornea is a protective coating
in front of eye. Then you have the Iris that acts like a diagram as it adjusts to control the
amount of light coming into the retina. When there is a bright light the Iris contracts to limit
incoming light and with low light, the iris dilates to allow more light to enter. Then comes the
lens which is an optical disk that focuses the incoming light back to the seeing part of the light
which is the retina. Rods and cones are embedded and there are over 100,000 per mm. The
light moves from the lens to the back of the eye which is the retina hits the disk which is the rod
and cones and the small number of light photons activate those cells. Rods are activated in low
light and cones need many more light photons to hit them in order to be activated. The
activated photoreceptor cells send their signal to the nuro cells and the nuro cells send them to
the optic nerve, the optic nerve sends the signal to the brain where it is processed so the
complete image can be seen. Cones are called photopic vision daylight vision and also where
color is formed (red blue and green). Cones perceive small objects where you can see small
detail or variations in densities this is contrast perception. Rods are night time vision also
known as scotopic vision. Dim objects are viewed peripherally when you look at a star in the sky
you sometimes you have to turn your head because the rods are trying to let light in and be
activated so you can see in the dark. The rods do not have good ability to see good detail or less
contrast resolution so in order to help image diagnosis you needed to have cones activated for
that to happen image brightness needed to increase and that is why image intensifiers were
developed. Image intensifiers can increase the brightness of the image 500-5,000 times through
light amplification