Roentgen's laboratory. Late 19th century engraving by Eugen Dieterich of Roentgen's laboratory at the chemical factory in Helfenberg near Dresden. An electric discharge tube is on the table, with electrical equipment and chemicals. This equipment was used by Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen (1845-1923) when he discovered X-rays in 1895. While using the discharge tube in the darkened room, he noticed that a card coated with barium platinocyanide glowed when the tube was switched on. The effect was not blocked by an intervening wall, or even a thin sheet of metal. Roentgen termed this newly discovered phenomenon X-radiation. He was awarded the first Nobel Prize for physics in 1901.