In his latest column, John Cross ’76 writes that “science and medicine were transformed in the first few months of 1896, and Bowdoin College made significant contributions to the ‘first wave’ of x-ray research.”

A year and a half after the September 1894 dedication of Searles Science Building, scientists at Bowdoin were at the forefront of research on the mysterious “X-rays” that had been described by German researcher Wilhelm Röentgen. Röentgen noticed that that when a tube used to create cathode rays was enclosed in a light-proof box and high-voltage was applied, a prepared plate several feet away displayed a faint fluorescent glow. Some energy was escaping from the tube. The rays penetrated the box and other substances, including human flesh. The first photograph (“Röentgenogram”) was a blurred image of the left hand of Anna Röentgen, the scientist’s wife, complete with her wedding ring. Upon seeing the bones of her hand, Frau Röentgen is reported to have exclaimed that she had just seen her own death. A paper on the discovery was published on December 28, 1895. The discovery of x-rays would later win Röentgen the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

The news spread with unprecedented speed to the scientific community and the popular press, thanks to transatlantic telegraph cables and a thirst for stories about the latest scientific wonders. Within a few weeks, American physicists announced that experiments were underway at colleges and universities with access to the expensive “Crookes Tubes” that produced cathode rays. Throughout the month of January of 1896 newspapers reported almost daily on x-ray experiments being conducted by Thomas Edison, the best-known scientist in America, and his plans to meet the challenge of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst to obtain an x-ray image of a living brain. It was a widely publicized claim that faded rapidly in the face of the technological challenges of obtaining an image of soft tissue encased in a bony globe.

The month of February was especially busy. Dartmouth scientists used x-rays in treating the broken arm of a 14-year-old on February 3, 1896, at Mary Hitchcock Hospital. On the 7th in Montreal, an x-ray was used to settle a court case of an alleged shooting, when McGill physicians used an x-ray to locate and remove a bullet from a man’s leg. On the 11th Columbia researcher Michael Pupin placed an Edison fluoroscope on top of a photographic plate, shortening the time required to x-ray the hand of a man whose shotgun had discharged unexpectedly, depositing 40 bits of buckshot into a complex architecture of bone and tendons. In Vienna, x-rays revealed the presence of a bird skeleton contained within the linen wrappings of an Egyptian mummy. A Cleveland merchant urged customers to “apply the X rays to our shoes and you’ll find them well built and honestly made.” The Duluth News Tribune tweaked a rival newspaper: “The Herald suggests that ‘even the x rays could not discover’ any fresh news in the morning paper…The x rays are useful only in penetrating opaque substances, and experiments in Duluth would be confined exclusively to the Herald.”

It was within this context that two Bowdoin professors (and alumni) conducted their own x-ray experiments within weeks of the initial discovery. Chemistry Professor Franklin Clement Robinson [Class of 1873] and Physics Professor Charles C. Hutchins [Class of 1883] were approached by Gilbert Elliott, a local physician, who had a copy of Röentgen’s paper. Elliott could envision medical applications for the technique, but he couldn’t read German. Not only could Hutchins and Robinson read and understand the article, they came up with their own procedure for making a more effective and inexpensive tube. The Brunswick Telegraph of April 27 described a public demonstration at the College: “The tube was suspended over the table and Prof. Robinson laid his hand on the plate holder, Prof. Hutchins snapped the current on and in just sixty seconds it was turned off and in less than five minutes he had developed it and threw the picture up on the screen by means of the stereopticon.” The professors also displayed an x-ray of a bullet that was embedded in the ankle an African-American railroad porter; the bullet showed up as a bright spot a little forward of the shaft of the tibia. The original image, which required an exposure time of one hour, is preserved at the College, along with one of Hutchins’s tubes. The bullet was subsequently removed during Saturday surgical clinic hours at the Medical College of Maine in Adams Hall.

It became clear quite early on that there were lots of variables to consider and control, including the size and shape of the tube, gases and substances enclosed in the tube, the proper degree of vacuum for optimal results, the degree of exposure, the voltage of the current, and the treatment of fluorescing screens or photographic plates onto which images would be viewed or recorded. It also became apparent that there were great dangers involved. In 2010 Dutch researchers compared an 1896 x-ray apparatus to a modern machine and found that an 1896 patient would have been exposed to 1,500 times more radiation than a patient would receive today in making an x-ray of a hand.

At that time I suppose that I was one of the first persons in this country to be completely X-rayed. An almost cadaverous thinness made me an alluring subject for experimentation.

Clement Robinson of the Class of 1903 (the professor’s son) recalled being an experimental subject as a young boy: “At that time I suppose that I was one of the first persons in this country to be completely X-rayed. An almost cadaverous thinness made me an alluring subject for experimentation. Nobody knew in those days of the dangers inherent in the exposure of naked flesh to X-ray emanations. No harm came to me, but the Professor himself from constant exposure of his hand to the rays developed a burn on his flesh which alarmed him for several years, but which finally disappeared without any permanent ill effects.”

The late newspaper columnist John Gould ’31, Maine humorist and raconteur extraordinaire, recounted the tale of Perley Watson of Brunswick. Back in the late 1890s while working for the Maine Central Railway, Watson had wrenched his back. Perley wasn’t satisfied with Dr. Elliott’s diagnosis that his back wasn’t seriously out of alignment, so he offered to pay for an x-ray. The first two images were indistinct, perhaps because of Perley’s “more or less corpulent stomach.” A third attempt and a 30-minute x-ray session produced a clear image of a healthy spine, although within a few days radiation blisters appeared on Perley’s ample abdomen. After several months there was some improvement, and Perley lived another 30 years before taking up permanent residence in Pine Grove Cemetery next to Whittier Field. Gould concluded the story with typical understatement: “There may be a few omissions and errors in the foregoing account and it may be that time and silence had a part to play both in exaggeration and suppression.”

Professor Robinson died in 1910 of nephritis (an inflammation of the kidneys) at the age of 58, Professor Hutchins died in his 82nd year, and Clement Robinson at 82. There has been no suggestion that radiation exposure was implicated in any of the deaths. Robinson and Hutchins never profited from their more efficient and cost-effective design for a focusing x-ray tube; instead, they gave their permission for a Boston factory to make the tubes, asking only that “proper credit be given.”

There is an ongoing debate over where the first medical use of X-ray technology in America occurred. Dartmouth, Bowdoin, MIT, and Yale each have their champions. It may well be that the Dartmouth x-ray of Eddie McCarthy’s elbow pre-dates the image of a bullet in the ankle of an unnamed railroad porter. All that we know is that the Bowdoin x-ray was shown at a lecture in April – we don’t yet know when the x-ray was made. The challenges in reconstructing (and deconstructing) timelines for experimental results, newspaper accounts, and scientific reports lead me to concur with Professor of Physics Emeritus Roy LaCasce ’44, who wrote that it may not be possible (or especially meaningful) to identify a “first” here. However, we can state, without fear of contradiction, that science and medicine were transformed in the first few months of 1896, and that Bowdoin College made significant contributions to the “first wave” of x-ray research.

With best wishes,

John R. Cross ’76
Secretary of Development and College Relations

Bowdoin students on a community-immersion orientation trip work while enjoying an unobstructed view of the Portland shore

“The lot named has a more beautiful outlook than any other vacant space in the city and should be preserved as an open space. Whatever occupies this ancient site, it should not be a hotel, to shut out all that is beautiful of the landscape.”

Such was the argument of Portland historian William Goold in the late 1800s as various developers tried to claim the waterfront area known as Fort Allen. The city of Portland heard his plea and bought the land in 1890, supplemented by an additional purchase by Mayor James P. Baxter in 1905. These purchases assured that Portland citizens would always have a view of the Portland Harbor and Casco Bay. Subsequently Portland’s city engineer, William Goodwin, worked to develop a park there with shrubs, trees, lawns, an Eastern Promenade roadway and a bandstand that still stands today. Read more about the creation of Fort Allen Park and the Eastern Promenade in the Portland Press Herald.

Bowdoin opened its campus to high school environmentalists when it hosted the 2013 Maine Envirothon for 10 schools from around the state last month. Piscataquis High School came in first, qualifying the team for the national competition in Bozeman, Mont.

The North American Envirothon is a competition for high school students that’s designed to boost young people’s engagement with and knowledge of natural resources and current environmental issues.

Bowdoin’s Environmental Studies Program hosted the event to connect with high school students interested in the environment, according to E.S. Program Manager Eileen Johnson. John Lichter, Bowdoin’s Samuel S. Butcher Associate Professor in the Natural Sciences, gave a brief welcome and introduction to the program. “Solutions to our problems today will require more than scientific understanding,” Lichter advised the students. “The real problem is how to get institutions to respond and act.”

Read the full story and see photographs here.

How’s this for an interview question: ”What would the person who likes you least in the world say about you?” It’s better to say something than to be at a loss, according to one HR director. In addition to thinking of someone who doesn’t like you (We’re not saying you’re unlikeable, but surely you can think of one person who doesn’t think you’re all that), this question forces you to share personal criticism you have received — and spin it in a positive light. Forbes presents what it calls the 10 toughest questions interviewers use to target the specific traits they look for in job candidates, whether it be successful risk-taking, creativity and quick thinking, or the ability to compromise.

Atayne 2013 summer intern Tom Henshall ’15

Since moving his company, Atayne, from Virginia to his hometown of Brunswick a few years back, Jeremy Litchfield ’99 has hired a number of Bowdoin students as interns.

Because his business is small — it’s just Litchfield and his wife working out of their home — the interns are thrown immediately into the myriad day-to-day operations of the eco-friendly company. Atayne sells sportswear apparel made from #1 plastic, primarily from recycled plastic bottles.

Throughout the academic year, the company hires one to three Bowdoin interns. This summer, for the first time, Atayne has hired an intern who is financially supported by one of the grants from Bowdoin’s funded internship program.

Read the full story.

Middle school had the right idea — successful people need a “home room” period to gather their thoughts and connect with others. While it may have become a habit to immediately check your email upon arriving at work, Fast Company suggests holding off for the first 30 minutes to an hour.

Instead, make it a goal to tackle one task, especially if it’s something you would otherwise be inclined to put off. Alternatively, they also recommend devoting the first hour of your day to face-to-face interaction, whether it be with mentors or less familiar coworkers. Read about these habits and more, along with their benefits, here.

Demilked presents a series of 28 diptych photos, depicting grandmas from around the globe paired with their specialty dishes. The ingredients range from iguana to caterpillar to pumpkin leaves paired with peanut butter. These grannies’ kitchens, as well as their attire, are as varied as the foods themselves, but the series is tied together well by the photos’ composition — and the warm, welcoming smile on each grandmother’s face.

The fledgling printmakers were 25 students from Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Mary Hart’s classes Printmaking I and II. “We worked from 8 o’clock in the morning to 8 o’clock at night for a week,” Hart said. Using a series of plates Chalfin had developed based on ink wash drawings, the students helped select colors and print the images on translucent mulberry paper. They printed four complete editions and 50 individual prints (each student chose a page spread to take home).

“It was a thrill to do this,” said Chalfin. “I came in with a really big project and everybody was so gracious and accommodating— the students buckled down and went right to work with me.” Read the full story.

Photo credits: Linda Alvarez ’13 and Mary Hart

It may seem overwhelming at times to figure out which social media platform to use for which message. Your world has many circles — work life, social circle, family and dare we say, love life. Fret no more, for as they say, there is an app, or in this case, several, for that — letting you separate these interactions, whether it be streamlining work-related communication through “Yammer” or thumb-kissing (yes, that is a thing) with the aptly named “Couple.” Mashable presents 10 more private and more narrowly-focused ways of connecting online with your neighbors, coworkers — even your grandmother.

American flag and sledges at the North Pole in April 1909. Photograph by Robert E. Peary or Matthew Henson.

June 14 is Flag Day, marking the anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes.

Chicago Now blogger Shannan Younger assembled 13 Flag Day facts, which include, at number eight, that Robert Peary (a member of the Bowdoin College Class of 1877)  placed a flag sewn by his wife at the North Pole in 1909, and left pieces of another flag along the journey. The list notes that it’s the only time a person has been honored for cutting the flag.

Read more about Peary and visit the Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum & Arctic Studies Center website.

Susan Faludi

On the heels of the 40th anniversary of women at Bowdoin, the college is honored to welcome Susan Faludi as Tallman Scholar in Gender and Women’s Studies for the 2013-2014 academic year. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author, Faludi has previously taught at Harvard University and held numerous prestigious fellowships.

“In terms of contemporary feminism in the United States, there really isn’t a more prominent voice than Susan Faludi’s,” said Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies Kristen Ghodsee, citing the influence of works such as Faludi’s book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

Faludi, whose role at Bowdoin will include teaching fall and spring seminars, expressed her own admiration for the intellectual atmosphere of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and the work of its faculty. “For me, one of the big appeals of the program is that they deal with tangible, real-world issues that women are confronting,” Faludi said. “I’m thrilled to become part of this community of scholars and students.”

Sunday is Father’s Day, and amid the grilling (how is it that Dad does the cooking on his day?) and golf-and-necktie-themed cards and gifts, we are reminded of the things that make fathers so special — the wealth of wisdom and experience they have to impart.

As many daughters do, Brittany Hodak, founder of ‘ZinePak, idolized her father growing up. She describes how he inspired her to act with character and courage, supported her in starting a business, and taught her the lessons she lives by today. ”Look for the good in every situation” and “always stop to say ‘thank you’” are two of his guidances. Read more of the lessons her father taught her here.

What does Will Arnett think of being a father? As he puts it: “I want my son to wear a helmet 24 hours a day.” From Robert Downey Jr. to President Obama, 23 famous fathers give their touching insight on the highlights of fatherhood, the stresses and everything in-between.