Computed tomography scanning, or CT scanning services use a computer that takes data from several X-ray images of structures inside a human’s or animal’s body and converts them into pictures you can view on a monitor. Tomography is essentially the process of generating a 2-dimensional image of a slice or section through a 3-dimensional object.

In recent years 3d laser scanning services have become popular not only in the medical fields where it originated, but also now in industrial ct scanning inspection. Companies can use the same technology to view the insides of machines and devices allowing them to be maintained, examined, and fixed without completely dissembling it. In order to appreciate where it is today, it’s important to understand where it all came from. Here are 3 important early moments in the history of computed tomography scanning.

1.) Early Tomography: The very first resemblance of any sort of CT scanning came in the early 1900s, when an Italian radiologist named Alessandro Vallebona proposed a method to represent a single slice of the body on radiographic film. Thus the term tomography was coined. Vallebona’s method used only mechanical means, X-ray tube, and film. The images were typically blurry, but it marked the first real use of tomography.

2.) Invention of CT Scanning: The first modern computed tomography scanning system was invented in 1972 by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories in England. Well, depending on who you ask anyway. South African-born physicist Allan Cormack of Tufts University, Massachusetts also laid claim to a very similar invention that achieved virtually the same results. Hounsfield and Cormack were later both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their contributions to medicine and science.

3.) Full-Body Capabilities: The system made by Hounsfield and Cormack, while innovative didn’t have the ability to scan any part of the human body. Only tomographic sections of the brain could be scanned. In 1974 though Robert S. Ledley, DDS, at Georgetown University, came up with a system that could scan any part (or the entire) body.

It didn’t take long for the CT scanning industry started to really gain traction in the medical communities around the world. It is thanks in large part to these early pioneers that there are now about 6,000 CT scanners installed in the U.S. and about 30,000 installed worldwide.