The X Ray Tube Components

Visit TODAY to view the rest of the videos in this series. In this video, we will be discussing the xray tube and its components. Without the xray tube, diagnostic imaging such as plain film xray, fluoroscopy, and computed tomography would not exist. The first generation of xray producing tubes was the Crookes tube. This simple tube included two electrodes that were placed at opposite ends of a semivacuum tube. Crookes, as well as other physicists, discovered that when high voltage electricity was delivered to opposite ends of the tube, that electrons would flow within the tube in a straight line. Through the use of the Crooks tube, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was able to both discover X radiation along with producing the first xray image. In 1913 a physicist and engineer named Edward Coolidge invented what would be known as the Coolidge tube. The Coolidge tube provided the framework of what we know today as the modern xray tubes. This i