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 x-ray tube and its components. Without the x-ray tube, diagnostic imaging such as plain film x-ray, fluoroscopy, and computed tomography would not exist. The first generation of x-ray producing tubes was the Crookes tube. This simple tube included two electrodes that were placed at opposite ends of a semi-vacuum 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 x-ray 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 x-ray tubes. This i