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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey everyone, I'm Eves and welcome back to

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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a podcast where we unwrap

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Speaker 1: a piece of history candy every day. Today is November.

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Speaker 1: The day was November nine. The first US patent for

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Speaker 1: a whole body X ray scanner was issued to Robert S. Ledley.

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Speaker 1: Scientists have been working on developing X ray computed tomography

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Speaker 1: technology for years. South Africa born physicist and mathematician Alan

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Speaker 1: Cormick's main work was in particle physics, but he theorized

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Speaker 1: that X rays of the brain and body could be

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Speaker 1: taken from different angles and the computer could be programmed

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Speaker 1: to arrange the images into three D representations. British electrical

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Speaker 1: engineer got Free Houmsfield developed a ct or computerized tomography

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Speaker 1: machine that could carry out brain scans, and he began

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Speaker 1: testing it in nineteen seventy one. He announced his invention

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Speaker 1: publicly in nineteen seventy two. The first CT scanner that

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Speaker 1: Houndsfield developed in his lab at E. M I Central

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Speaker 1: Research Laboratories in England took several hours to get the

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Speaker 1: raw data for a single scan, in days to reconstruct

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Speaker 1: an image from the raw data. The first production model

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Speaker 1: e m I scanner took four minutes to make a

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Speaker 1: scan and its mini computer took about seven minutes to

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Speaker 1: compute each picture. In the US, Robert Letley was working

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Speaker 1: in the School of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center

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Speaker 1: as a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.

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Speaker 1: Letley previously studied dentistry and theoretical physics and worked as

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Speaker 1: a physicist, research analysts, and professor of electrical engineering. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, while at Georgetown, he developed the first

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Speaker 1: whole body CT machine. Let Lee's invention was known as

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Speaker 1: the a c t A or Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial

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Speaker 1: Diagnostic X ray scanner. It provided images of the body

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Speaker 1: and brain that could not be seen with normal X rays.

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Speaker 1: This was because the device used computers to generate three

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Speaker 1: dimensional images from flat X ray pictures of cross sections

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Speaker 1: of the body. The technology allowed doctors to precisely locate

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Speaker 1: at normal tissue, which could provide for early diagnosis of

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Speaker 1: illness and disease. Let Lee's patent for the machine number

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Speaker 1: of three million, nine two thousand, five hundred and fifty two,

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Speaker 1: issued on November nineteen fifteen recognizes precedents for quote the

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Speaker 1: concept of utilizing X ray scanning with thin beams for

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Speaker 1: analysis by computers for storing and reconstructing the results in

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Speaker 1: tangible form, as well as quote the concept of rotational

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Speaker 1: scanning by X rays for the reconstruction of planer anatomical sections.

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Speaker 1: The patent describes a sheen for examining the interior of

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Speaker 1: a patient that consists of a movable support, a frame

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Speaker 1: with an opening that the patient can enter into a

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Speaker 1: shutter assembly, an X ray beam source and detector unit

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Speaker 1: mounted on the opening of the frame, and mechanisms for

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Speaker 1: rotating and tilting the framework. Let Lee scanner set the

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Speaker 1: foundation for modern CT scanners, as it made use of

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Speaker 1: the first high resolution digital TV display for medical imaging

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Speaker 1: and a tilting gantry or circular frame. The technology also

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Speaker 1: improved the diagnosis of cancers, heart disease, and bone disease,

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Speaker 1: and was used in radiation therapy planning. I'm Eave Scheffco

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. Give us a show or a

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Speaker 1: share on social media at t d i h C podcast,

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Speaker 1: or if you are so inclined, you can send us

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Speaker 1: a message at this day at i heart media dot com,

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Speaker 1: I truly hope you enjoyed today's show. We'll be back

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Speaker 1: tomorrow with another episode. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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