The use of hard X-rays (60-300 keV) for diffraction studies of disorde
red materials has several advantages: higher resolution in direct spac
e, smaller correction terms, removal of truncation effects, the possib
ility for operating in extreme environments and for direct comparison
between X-ray and neutron data. A feasibility study of amorphous silic
a has been performed at 95 keV, using a wiggler synchrotron beam-line
at HASYLAB and a cylindrical sample, 3 mm in diameter. The range of Q
between 0.8 and 32 Angstrom(-1) was covered. A thorough discussion of
the experimental challenges is given. The resulting systematic error i
ntrinsic to the scattering process (not including errors in the form-f
actors) is found to be of the order of 0.2%. The data have been analyz
ed in terms of a model of the short-range order. The O-Si-O bond angle
distribution is found to be nearly Gaussian, centered around 109.3(3)
degrees with a rms value of 4.2(3)degrees. For the Si-O-Si bond angle,
several types of distribution V(alpha) = V-1(alpha) sin(alpha) were i
nvestigated. Best fits were obtained for rather broad distributions wi
th V having its maximum at 147 degrees and V-1 at 180 degrees.