An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz ( to ) and energies in the range 145 eV to 124 keV. X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays. In many languages, X-radiation is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it on November 8, 1895. He named it X-radiation to signify an unknown type of radiation. Spellings of X-ray(s) in English include the variants x-ray(s), xray(s), and X ray(s). The most familiar use of X-rays is checking for fractures (broken bones), but X-rays are also used in other ways. For example, chest X-rays can spot pneumonia. Mammograms use X-rays to look for breast cancer. History Pre-Röntgen observations and research Before their discovery in 1895, X-rays were just a type of unidentified radiation emanating from experimental discharge tubes. They were noticed by scientists investigating cathode rays produced by such tubes, which are energetic electron beams that were first observed in 1869. Many of the early Crookes tubes (invented around 1875) undoubtedly radiated X-rays, because early researchers noticed effects that were attributable to them, as detailed below. Crookes tubes created free electrons by ionization of the residual air in the tube by a high DC voltage of anywhere between a few kilovolts and 100 kV. This voltage accelerated the electrons coming from the cathode to a high enough velocity that they created X-rays when they struck the anode or the glass wall of the tube. The earliest experimenter thought to have (unknowingly) produced X-rays was William Morgan. In 1785, he presented a paper to the Royal Society of London describing the effects of passing electrical currents through a partially evacuated glass tube, producing a glow created by X-rays. This work was further explored by Humphry Davy and his assistant Michael Faraday. When Stanford University physics professor Fernando Sanford created his "electric photography", he also unknowingly generated and detected X-rays. From 1886 to 1888, he had studied in the Hermann von Helmholtz laboratory in Berlin, where he became familiar with the cathode rays generated in vacuum tubes when a voltage was applied across separate electrodes, as previously studied by Heinrich Hertz and Philipp Lenard. His letter