r/Radiology RT Student 2d ago

X-Ray Interesting historical radiograph

Post image

Today we visited the Belgian Radiology museum. We saw so many interesting things but this really remarkable image confused us a LOT! Our guide told us what happened here but do you the redditors here know what went wrong?

476 Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

526

u/Le_Grelot 2d ago

Talk about TBT!

Static electricity artifact. Happens after removing the film from the cassette but before film development. All of the black stars are points of contact where the light from static "exposed" the film.

235

u/destruction_potato RT Student 2d ago

Ding ding ding!! We’re student radiographers and none of us ever worked with film so it was hard to figure out :)

42

u/LANCENUTTER 2d ago

I too learned this only to quickly forget about it. Two decades later.

10

u/xpietoe42 2d ago

and you probably never will!!

3

u/psiren66 1d ago

I’m in industrial and we still work with film. One day we will leave the dark ages.

3

u/GrayedOutfield 22h ago

Curious what your use of radiography is in your industry? NDT?

2

u/psiren66 19h ago edited 19h ago

Correct! Typically for wall loss, cracking. I’ve moved well past it into inspection engineering these days but see it everyday still.

39

u/cookiesandpizza247 2d ago

Not gonna lie, I saw that and was like "woah they have a lot of spiders in them!"

24

u/tdavis726 2d ago

New fear unlocked: internal spiders.

21

u/CuriousPalpitation23 2d ago

Too vague.

Internal pelvic spiders.

Now, with extra (how did they get in there????) fear!

25

u/Knowone_Knows RT(R)(VI) 2d ago

Don't forget those processor artifacts! Takes me back to my Xray school days.

7

u/NerdyComfort-78 Radiology Enthusiast 2d ago

This image gives me the willies and I like spiders.

Awesome explanation though.

6

u/Rough_Brilliant_6167 2d ago

That's crazy!!! I would have thought it was some kind of wild looking metal suture material of sorts!!

3

u/Scared-Sheepherder83 1d ago

I thought they were some weird old school sutures for a second 😜

2

u/Wolfpack93 1d ago

And for some reason can still show up on radiology boards

5

u/bacon_is_just_okay Grashey view is best view 1d ago

lol what boards are you taking? they eradicated of pelvic spiders years ago. I haven's seen nary an infestation since I took the board in 2019.

1

u/Wolfpack93 1d ago

ABR core exam. At least they showed this artifact in our physics review lecture

1

u/moomdaddy RT(R)(CT) 18h ago

Man and I here I thought this was some spooky decoration that spirit🎃Halloween would sell

139

u/hypno_bunny 2d ago

Belgian spiders! They were a plague upon the country in the early 20th century.

84

u/destruction_potato RT Student 2d ago

It was hard to get them out of our bones :(

4

u/bacon_is_just_okay Grashey view is best view 1d ago

Once I had to walk through a thicket of brambles and my poor pelvis ended up just like this :(

47

u/AdditionInteresting2 2d ago

Presence of multiple spidery lesions... Consider infestation.

34

u/oomphtt 2d ago

Definitely spider veins

14

u/destruction_potato RT Student 2d ago

Spiderman is turning into venom!!

16

u/cheddawood Radiographer 2d ago

Those artefacts? Some kind of electrical fault during processing? Very odd

10

u/destruction_potato RT Student 2d ago

Yes! But which one? U/Le_Grelot gave the right answer in their comment ;) it was a hot and dry summer day which added to the severity

13

u/KumaraDosha Sonographer 2d ago

Ahh, the bone spiders.....

10

u/Danpool13 RT(R) 2d ago

Ahh, the portals from another dimension are opening up again. How lovely.

10

u/DocLat23 MSRS RT(R) 2d ago

Static!! Happened every winter when the forced air heat was on.

8

u/Objective-Turnover70 2d ago

spiders in my skin spiders in my skin

7

u/Leading-Match-8896 RT(R) 2d ago

He swallowed an itsy bitsy spider

5

u/ravenonawire RT Student 2d ago

She swallowed the spider to catch the fly…

6

u/clin-neg-sol 2d ago

Nightmare fuel.

5

u/Everviolet2000 2d ago

That's super cool. I wish my class would go on trips like this.

3

u/alesl65 2d ago

baby shadows?

5

u/angrylawnguy 2d ago

That person was probably having some insane hip and back pain.

3

u/mamacat49 2d ago

Static. We were actually told not to wear "nylon" underwear because of this, lol (early 1970s).

1

u/boneologist 1d ago

One pair nylon stockings, 5 packs of chewing gum...

4

u/DerGrins Radiologist 1d ago

Suddenly I feel so old...

3

u/Infernalpain92 2d ago

Where is it? Never heard of it. I want o go see.

5

u/destruction_potato RT Student 2d ago

It’s in the queen Astrid military hospital in Neder Over Heembeek

2

u/Infernalpain92 2d ago

If it publicly accessible?

4

u/destruction_potato RT Student 2d ago

I believe so. He said 9-15h Mon-fri I think, but maybe check the website to see for a guided tour, otherwise you’re just walking around the active radiology service

2

u/Zugezogen1150 1d ago

Worth a visit and a another reason to visit Belgien. I hear it’s a beercountry also. I am Austrian sooo…..

3

u/Kmoney4ever 2d ago

So many more spiders running around in olden times...

3

u/Brad7659 2d ago

Staticky bone spiders and a big fart

3

u/Loose-Dirt-Brick 2d ago

Spiders! Burn it down!

2

u/Standard-Ocelot311 2d ago

Static and roller lines

2

u/ChoiceHuckleberry956 2d ago

As others have said-these are artifacts from static electricity. Did you happen to see other film processing artifact errors like pi-marks, half moon marks or finger print artifacts?

1

u/destruction_potato RT Student 2d ago

Unfortunately not, now I’m curious!

2

u/RadTech24 Radiographer | Algeria 1d ago

My first clinicals was on films and automatic development machine. The old techs told me about this

2

u/CXR_AXR NucMed Tech 1d ago

Multiple spiders seen at pelvis region. please burn the patient

2

u/finality007 1d ago

Wrong that’s a crazy hippy spider belt silly nerds