X ray on future Nobel laureate Lawrence Bragg's elbow in 1896 part of Adelaide early medical technology
The X-ray screening room at Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1946.
mage courtesy of State Library of South Australia
X rays, central to William and Lawrence Braggs’ joint claim to the Nobel Prize for physics in 1915, played their part in a domestic drama at the family’s North Adelaide home in 1896. They were also part of Adelaide’s willingness to adopt X rays and other new technologies for medical use.
Six-year-old Lawrence Bragg was riding his tricycle at home in 1896 when his younger brother Bob jumped on from behind and both fell on Lawrence’s left elbow.
Lawrence was taken to his father William’s Adelaide University laboratory where the elbow was Xrayed with apparatus still in its infancy. X rays had only been discovered in the previous year by Wilhelm Röntgen in Germany.
Lawrence’s left elbow was shown to be shattered. Long-time family friend and doctor Alfred Lendon thought the arm should be allowed to set stiff but Dr Charlie Todd, Lawrence’s uncle and a son of postmaster general Charles Todd, decided to do better. Every few days, Lawrence was put under ether and his arm flexed to form a new joint. The treatment was largely successful, although Lawrence’s left arm was a little crooked and shortened from then on.
Also in June, 1896, as part of his demonstrations of X rays in Adelaide, William Bragg had his hand photographed in X ray by his Adelaide University apparatus maker Arthur Rogers.
The (later Royal) Adelaide Hospital had already been at the forefront of adopting new medical technology. Its first operating theatre opened in 1891, with elevated seats around the operating table, enabling students and visiting technicians to see the operations.
In 1899, four years after X rays were discovered, the hospital opened an X-ray theatre. The hospital installed its first telephone system in 1901, performed its first blood transfusion in 1925, and conducted its first bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor in 1995.
