Röntgen’s Strange Order - a Contribution to the History of the Discovery of Röntgen Rays

Due to the fact that Rontgen never reported the details of the discovery of his ”new rays”, he left the door open for speculative interpretations. As a contribution to a serious analysis of the history of Rontgen’s discovery, this paper presents a previously unnoticed letter relating to an order of a number of very thin crystalline absorbers. The addressee is unfortunately unknown. The letter is dated November 15, 1895. Therefore, this letter must be considered to be the first well documented remark made by Rontgen after seeing the earliest indications of the new rays only one week earlier. The order seems to emphasize the role of a particular type of cathode ray tube developed by Philipp Lenard, Nobel Prize winner of 1905, and manufactured by the glassblower Louis Muller-Unkel in the discovery of the new radiation. It partly contradicts an analysis based on Rontgen’s order book from Wurzburg made by the author et al. some years ago. Completed by the document presented here, Rontgen’s order correspondence allows some insight into Rontgen’s intentions during this productive period. The autograph was found at Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Sammlung Darmstaedter, by the author.