Vojtech Alexander’s X-ray Machine

Vojtech Alexander was born in Kežmarok in 1857. He worked as a physician and surgeon before turning to research into X-rays. Photographs and written records displayed alongside the surviving machine document his life and work.

In 1896, with support from the Association of Spiš Doctors and Pharmacists, he bought a machine made by Reiniger-Gebbert & Schall in Erlangen. He was the first doctor in what is now Slovakia to acquire such equipment. It is the most valuable object in this part of the collection.

Alexander initially X-rayed plants and animals, only later examining people. In 1906, he produced his first relief-like X-ray image. He published the results of his work in more than a hundred scholarly papers and also met Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in person.

The museum holds some of the earliest images. In 1988, the Slovak Ministry of Culture designated them a national cultural monument. They are records of the doctor's experiments and a separately protected part of his legacy, displayed alongside the equipment used in his research.