The society can be traced back to two separate institutes, "The X-Ray Society" in April, 1897, and "The
Röntgen Society"; both were formed in the wake of the discovery of
X-rays by
Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895. The latter was founded by
Dr John Macintyre in 1897. He had been the first person in Britain to use X-rays, using equipment created by
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin at
Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 5 February 1896. The formalisation of the BIR occurred in 1927 upon the merger of the two societies. The
Archives of Clinical Skiagraphy, first published in 1896, ultimately became the BJR in 1928. ==Notable past presidents==