The Hopkins rod-lens system.

Surgeons have always been ready to adapt advances in technology into their practice. The discovery by Wilhelm Roentgen of X-rays in 1885 was applied within weeks of its publication to the diagnosis of fractures and the location of foreign bodies. The development of the electric light bulb by Edison enabled Max Nitze, Professor of Urology in Berlin, to develop the electrically illuminated cystoscope, which he patented in 1877. By 1911, Hugh Young used a cystoscope with a punch device to perform transurethral prostatectomy. Rapidly other electrically lit 'scopes' were introduced--the gastroscope, bronchoscope, thoracoscope and so on. All had two problems: they were rigid instruments and lacked really brilliant illumination.