Roentgen Rays and Phenomena of the Anode and Cathode

The new form of energy, for which there are two names—to wit, the Roentgen ray and the X-ray—is radiated from a highly exhausted discharge tube, which may be energized by an induction coil or other suitable electrical apparatus, such as a Holtz or a Wimshurst electrical machine. § 106. The principle underlying the construction of the usual induction (or Ruhmkorff) coil is disclosed in the subject-matter of § § 1, 2, and 3, and is represented in diagram in Figs. 1 and 2 on page 17. It would be well for the amateur or general scientific reader to study these sections carefully, for then he will have all the knowledge that is necessary for understanding the apparatus by which the discharge tube is energized. Of course, he will not comprehend the various mechanical details, nor the many electrical and mathematical relations existing in connection with an induction coil, but he will gain sufficient knowledge to appreciate what is intended when such a device is referred to here and there throughout the book. Since the time of Faraday, Page, and Fizeau induction coils of very large dimensions have been constructed, but none of them probably ever exceeded that built by Spottiswoode, during or about 1875, which was so powerful as to produce between the two electric terminals, in open air, a spark of 42 in. in the secondary current with only 30 small galvanic cells of the Grove type in the primary circuit. The cells are seldom used in this connection at the present time, the same being replaced by the dynamo, and the current being conveniently obtained from the regular incandescent-lamp circuit which may be found in almost any city. Those, therefore, who intend to become better acquainted with the details of the electrical apparatus should study in conjunction with this book some elementary treatise relating particularly to dynamos and electric currents.

The essential element in connection with the generation of X-rays is not the coil nor the dynamo, but the electric discharge, especially when occurring within a rarefied atmosphere, provided within a glass bulb, called the discharge tube throughout the book, but which has usually been called by different names, for example, the receiver of an air pump, or a Geissler tube, when the air is not very highly exhausted, or a Crookes tube (see picture at § 123) when the vacuum is definitely much higher by way of contrast. It has also been called a Hittorff tube, the Lenard tube, and by several other names, according to its peculiar characteristics.