Henry Green on X-rays and Their Effects on the Human Body

12/08/1904 |

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Henry Green gave an interview to a reporter from the Hartford Courant during which he primarily discussed the injuries he had suffered from x-rays. Green also discussed his career and his successes as a roentgenologist.

More details

Green and John Bauer had suffered from x-ray burns for about eight years.
Both Green and Bauer were now under the care of Emil G. Reinert, a local doctor.
Reinert had cauterized Green’s and Bauer’s burns after everything else he tried had proved ineffective.
Green had also begun to wear cotton gloves.
Green had rejected skin grafts that because he believed it would have impaired his ability to work.
Green anticipated that his hands would begin to “heal rapidly.”
Several men around the country had been badly burned by x-rays as well.

Doctors amputated the hand of a physician in Syracuse due to burns.
“Dr. Dodd” of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, had two fingers amputated due to burns.

And then there's this

Green made his case for his place in the history of roentgenology
Green & Bauer continues to manufacture x-ray tubes, but it was at a competitive disadvantage to German manufacturers.
A tube in an x-ray machine will last from one month to one year.
Physicians use x-rays for a variety of diseases, principally for cancer and tumors.

The past recalled

Green attempted to find a bullet in Theodore Studley’s leg on July 17, 1896.
The first evidence of Green & Bauer manufacturing an x-ray machine was the one that they sold to Hartford Hospital in November 1896.
The Courant interviewed Green on the curative effects of x-rays on blindness on November 27, 1896.

The future foretold

Green would apply for a patent on x-ray tubes on March 28, 1908.

Neat little tidbit

Green also shared his thoughts on protective tariffs for the two manufacturers of x-ray tubes in the United States, one of which was Green & Bauer in Hartford. According to Green, German manufacturers were able to undercut American manufacturers with less expensive tubes due primarily to the cost of labor in the US. Green thought an 80% tariff on imported tubes should be sufficient to protect the American manufacturers.

Caught my eye

“Mr. Green said yesterday that there is no occasion now for any one getting injured by the X-rays. He said that owing to the improvements work done now with the machine in a few minutes that formerly required twenty minutes.”
“Mr. Green said that when he first made an X-ray light he showed it to fifty or sixty physicians a day and he exposed his hand to the rays.”
“Mr. Green said he manufactured the first X-ray machine in this country.”
“The first photography that he made with the X-ray, and it was the first made in this state, was of the leg of Robert Magonigal, who was injured by falling from a hose wagon.”
“He said those who had been burned like he had could consider themselves ‘martyrs to science.’”

For the record

Robert Magonigal was a Hartford firefighter, and he was headed toward a fire when he was thrown from the hose wagon. The injury in question appears to have happened on August 5, 1896, but I haven’t found any reporting on an x-ray of his leg.

Sources

Unattributed, “Burned by X-Rays, Now Find Relief: Two Hartford Men Have Suffered Eight Years,” Hartford Courant, December 9, 1904, page 5.

Henry Green

History

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