ABSTRACT
Professional historians of science and technology have so far shunned the field of contrast agent technology, to the extent that an otherwise most interesting contemporary history of Rontgen rays and their role in medicine barely mentions contrast agents. Technology should be thought of as the union of marketable technical artifacts with prescriptions for use that satisfies specific practical needs and wishes. Technology genesis is the creation of basic novel technology that can bring fundamental technological innovation. Transformation of a laboratory experiment into X-ray technology with its combination of tubes, electrical generators, films, intensifying screens, fluoroscopes, and semeiotics required a collective effort for more than a decade by a vast number of individuals and organizations. In the analytical model, little attention has been given to how a vision for a technology emerges, except for conceiving it already the result of interference phenomena between knowledge cultures.
