In a state-of-the-art laboratory on Westersingel, physicists Herman Haga and Cornelis Wind threw themselves into a completely new field of research from 1895 onwards: X-rays. The mysterious rays that passed through clothes and skin had only just been discovered.

The pair struggled for years until they achieved their big breakthrough. But no one believed them.

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The laboratory of Herman Haga and Cornelis Wind was located on Westersingel and is better known as “The Castle” on the spot where Noorderpoortcollege is now located. The X-rays Haga took are still in the possession of the University Museum.

This episode was written and researched by Jan Waling Huisman of the University Museum Groningen and Christien Boomsma. Sound by Rob van der Wal. Voice by Tom Wilcox.

Shownotes

Want to read more about Herman Haga? Check out:

Berkel, Klaas van, University of the North: four centuries of academic life in Groningen 2. The classical university 1876-1945 (2017)

W.A.H. van Wylick, Röntgen and the Netherlands. Röntgen's relations to the Netherlands and the rise of Röntgenology here in the country (Utrecht 1966)

Knecht-van Eekelen, A. de, J.F.M. Panhuysen, G. Rosenbusch (ed), Through the human flesh. 100 years of radio diagnostics in the Netherlands 1895-1995 (Rotterdam 1995)