ABSTRACT
One of the starting points in industrial radiography was the X-ray picture taken by Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen of his hunting rifle, which is taken from the frontispiece of the third edition of Practical Radiography by A. W. Isenthal and Snowden Ward. The First World War, 1914–1918, gave an impetus to industrial radiography and shows a radiograph of the fuse of a 75 mm shell. Since the 1920s the industrial use of X-rays has greatly expanded and forms part of standard non-destructive testing procedures for a wide range of materials. Industrial gamma radiography apparatus using radium was not developed until 1930 but, with radium replaced by artificially produced radionuclides such as cobalt-60, gamma radiography is a useful non-destructive testing tool for a variety of applications, such as, for example, in situations where a mobile unit has to be taken on site for inspection of oil pipelines.
