Malaysia's First X-Ray Technology Began in Taiping
Once upon a time, the state of Perak was renowned as the state in Malaya that received the most technology and modernization from the British.
Perak was the first and earliest state to receive such advantages compared to other states. Among the most interesting and earliest technologies received in Perak was the X-ray scanning machine technology introduced in 1897. X-rays were introduced at Taiping Hospital on February 3, 1897, approximately one year after a scientist named Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered this X-ray technology through research at the University of Wurzburg, Bavaria in Germany. In fact, Taiping Hospital at that time became the first hospital in East Asia to use the technology, particularly for medical purposes. Mr. Leonard Wray officiated the X-ray scanning machine, and the first subject to be scanned by the machine was a pomfret fish.
“Shadow pictures in Perak: During the 3rd meeting of the Perak Amateur Photographic Society in Taiping, its chairman, Mr. Wray, demonstrated Roentgen ray equipment. Perak is said to be the first state in the Far East where this new photography was adopted. This equipment used an induction coil, and the tube belonged to Professor Jackson. Mr. Wray successfully used it on a pomfret fish; the resulting image accurately showed the bones found in the fish. The rays were then used on the hand of one of the spectators, Mr. Pourlier, who had suffered a fracture during a cricket match sixteen months prior. The resulting image met all expectations. It is understood that hospitals in Perak will soon be supplied with Roentgen equipment (X-ray machines)." - Coverage of the inauguration in The Straits Times newspaper on February 16, 1897. Other X-ray images were shown during the annual meeting of the Amateur Photographic Society in Taiping, Perak. By the end of 1897, a complete X-ray machine was gifted to Ipoh Hospital in honor of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Subsequently, another X-ray machine arrived in Kuala Lumpur in 1905 and then in Penang in 1910. Such is the history of the X-ray machine in Malaysia, which first took root in Taiping, Perak.
