DOI: 10.1148/rg.252045158
RadioGraphics 2005;25:549
© RSNA, 2005
Scenes from the Past
Sun-dried X Rays1
Zaleha Y. Joazlina, MB, BS and
Martin L. Wastie, FRCP, FRCR
1 From the Department of Radiology, University of Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Received August 4, 2004; accepted August 18.
Address correspondence to Z.Y.J. (e-mail: joazlinazy{at}yahoo.com).
Not so many years ago, film processing of radiologic images was handled somewhat differently, compared with today’s methods. All the images were hard copy, produced on silver-based x-ray film. After the x-ray exposure had been made, the film cassettes were passed into the darkroom where the technician removed the film and began processing it. The film was first immersed in a tank of developer, then washed, and subsequently immersed in a tank of fixer, with each immersion lasting for the requisite length of time. The film was then washed again and dried before being presented to the radiologist for interpretation and reporting. If images were needed urgently, the darkroom technician was asked to produce them before the films were dried, which explains how the term wet films entered the radiology parlance.
A big advance in film processing was made in the mid 1950s, when roller transport processing was introduced. With this technology, dry films could be produced in 6 minutes. A decade later, other technologic improvements enabled images to be produced in 90 seconds, resulting in rapid, almost instantaneous film processing. However, small departments still used the old-fashioned, wet-developing method until well into the 1970s.
The picture above was taken in 1972 in Kuantan, a primarily agrarian community of 130,000 people on the east coast of Malaysia. In those days, the town’s only hospital was a government facility known as the General Hospital, which had a small two-room X-ray Department and no specialist radiologist. The tropical climate in Malaysia with its ample sunshine allowed the x-ray films to be dried by hanging them on a wash line in the sun.
