EDDY CLIFFORD JERMAN 1865 – 1936

Pioneer x-ray technicians in the early 20th Century had a heavy load to bear. The vast majority were women, and they were expected not only to operate the x-ray equipment, but also to perform routine machine maintenance. These first technicians also worked in a climate indifferent to radiation protection, and the death toll among them was high. It wasn’t until nearly 20 years after Roentgen’s discovery that precautions such as lead aprons and film badges came into widespread use.

Because instructional manuals were rare, the first technicians learned positioning and exposure techniques via the “hunch method “, in other words by blindly guessing and hoping for diagnostic results. Despite this, many x-ray technicians were able to achieve what were then considered to be remarkable radiographic images. With no written rules, however, they found it difficult to explain their successes and could not formulate a technique that others could follow.

The plight of the undereducated, overworked x-ray technician was largely ignored until the 1920s, when the persistent work of one man — Eddy C. Jerman — finally brought education, organization and legitimacy to the x-ray technician.

In October 1920, Jerman and 13 technician acquaintances — half of whom were women — met in Chicago to establish the first national technicians society, the American Association of X-Ray Technicians. The society was created “for the purpose of affording technicians an opportunity for the interchange of thoughts and ideas concerned with radiologic technique.”

The new society offered knowledge-hungry technologists the opportunity to meet and share technical advice. This process was formalized in 1929 with the debut of the society’s periodic journal, The X-Ray Technician.

Like so many of his fellow pioneers, Jerman bore the marks and scars of radiation on his body. In great pain near the end of his life, he died at home in Winfield, Kansas on September 13, 1936.