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The first page, mysterious rays
  Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
             1845-1923
The first X- ray picture.
It's the hand of Röntgen's wife Anna Bertha, she lived from 1839-1919. The picture was taken on 22 December 1895. Picture Röntgen Museum.
 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923)
 Röntgen was born in Lennep Germany and moved with his parents to The Netherlands in 1848 where he went to the technical school in Utrecht 
 which he didn't complete. Due to this he was refused at the Utrecht University. He managed in 1865 to study at the Swiss University in Zurich. After 
 several studies at different Universities in Germany he worked as a Professor at the University of Würtzburg where he did his discovery of X-rays.

 During his research on cathode rays which started in 1895, he noticed that a plate of barium platino-cyanide crystals on a table six feet away in his 
 workroom glowed when he activated the tube. Even after covering the tube with black cardboard it kept glowing. Röntgen linked this to the working 
 of the tube and named this strange phenomena X-rays (unknown rays). In following experiments he used a photographic plate and made the first X-
 ray pictures, one of them the famous hand of his wife Anna Bertha.

 Which tube Röntgen used during his discovery is not very clear, it is known that he used common Crookes models but also used Hittorff tubes (later 
 sold as absolute vacuum tubes) and experimented with Lenard tubes which he had ordered to his own description for research by different tube 
 suppliers like Louis Müller-Unkel, Greiner & Friedrichs, Emil Gundelach. This resulted hat more than one claimed that they had made the tube used 
 during the discovery. It resulted in a boost of newly developed tubes for the discovered rays in the first year. Röntgen who gave the name to this rays
 never patented the invention and ordered that all his papers must be burned after his death, some of his tubes were donated to the Deutsches 
 Museum in Berlin in 1906.  Röntgen was rewarded with the Nobel prize for Physics in 1901.

 From as early 1879 many scientists were interested in the newly discovered Radiant Matter (cathode rays) by Sir William Crookes. Several reports 
 are known of witnessing strange spots on photographic plates in their work rooms after experimenting, although no one spent much attention on it. 
 (due to X-rays normally produced by Crookes tubes)

 Six weeks after his discovery he published his results on December 28th in "On a New Kind of Rays". After the publication scientists all over the  
 world repeated his experiment using their Crookes tubes. A.A. Campbell Swinton (like many others) did the same experiments in England with a 
 newly developed X-Ray tube made by A.C. Cossor (a famous producer of high quality Crookes tubes) after a description by Röntgen.
 It was a small pear shaped tube with two electrodes one in the form of a ring which can be seen against the wall on a photographic picture from The 
 Windsor Magazine 1896 spring section.
 The first X-ray photographs in the US were made using a Puluj lamp by Edwin and Gilman Frost on February 3, 1896.

 In Germany a museum is dedicated to Wilhelm Röntgen and his work.
 A biography of Röntgen can be found here.
The platinum foil inside the tube.
The foil is a little deformed due to the heat generated by the stream of electrons.
It actually burned a hole in the foil.
The concave cathode
To converge the electron beam to focus on the small platinum anode.

  Jackson X-ray tube 
  This early tube from the late 19th century was 
  developed by Professor Herbert Jackson (1863-1936) in
  1894, he worked at King's College in London and did
  research on fluorescence and luminescence in vacuum
  tubes. Jackson developed the typical concave cathode 
  as can be seen in the upper part of the tube.
  During his research he accidentally discovered the X-
  ray phenomena prior to Röntgen, though he was not
  aware of their significance.
  A small piece of information is public at JSTOR.

  The first publication of this tube in Science illustree
  was as early May 1896.
Jackson focus X-ray tube ca 1896
Currently on loan at the CODA museum Apeldoorn Holland
Demonstration of an early X-ray photography 1896.
From the article; The New Photography By Cathode Rays, Scribners' magazine April 1896 by John Trowbridge.
A.A.Campbell Swinton demonstrating an early X-ray
tube for the Royal Photographic Society 11 Febr 1896.
This picture is from The Windsor Magazine 1896
On the white paper in the back left the first pear shaped X-ray tube to the right a model after Hittorf. (picture courtesy Alastair Wright)
There is a tube of this model at the Science museum in London.

Second
  page
Large Early X-ray tube
This early odd English tube has a length of about 50 cm with a simple tiny rod anode and a heavy metal cathode.
The blue glass seals and platinum connections indicate a production date of late 1800, so it is possibly an experimental tube from the time that the X-rays were invented. It was used in a school as an X-ray tube.
This tube was kindly donated by Ian Poole.
The heavy anode 15x15x15mm made to withstand the heat generated by the use has an unusually shape.
Looking at the deposit on the glass it could never have a sharply focussed ray.
  Above professor Röntgen at work
  "in the midst of an experiment on the new light"
  with Crookes style tube.
  The drawing is made by Walter E. Hodgson
  in 1896 for The Windsor Magazine.
  Ivan Puluj 1845-1918
The old label tells the phosphorescent composition on the mica screen which is covered with calcium wolframite CaWO4 also called scheelite or calcium tungstate and lights up 
white blue when hit by electrons.
Puluj lamp
ca 1885 or earlier
           First medical X-ray in the US
Drs Edwin and Gilman Frost using a Puluj lamp for their first X-rays on 3 February 1896, notice the bright light generated by the tube.
Here a link to the original PDF article from the Dartmouth Medical school. 
And here another one describing the same historical fact (arjonline.org).
Actual setup with the Puluj lamp of Frost.
Activated tube

Large Puluj lamp
Height 34cm ~1900
Early simple model X-ray tube
This is a rare two electrode type X-ray tube from around 1896 Crookes style.
Click on the picture to see a larger version of this sheet with the first publication of  early X-Ray tube models. (La Nature 1896)
The tubes were owned by Gaston Séguy and shows designs of several scientist.
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X-ray tube with regulator ca 1904
On the tube is etched; G.M. no.298815 and probably made by the company of Franz Schilling from Gehlberg Germany. This tube has a bulb diameter of 10cm and has a regulator with mica plates, which was an "automatic"regulator. When the tube gets "hard" a flash-over from the wire will result in a flashover in the mica which release a little bit of air. This kind of tube was suitable for fluoroscopy and photography and produced in different sizes.
Early Villard X-ray tube.
From around 1900 with an osmosis palladium regulator (the small metal tube on the right). When this palladium tube was heated, hydrogen diffused through this small metal tube and regulated the vacuum in the X-ray tube.
Radiguet Muret Bi-Anode focus Ion X-Ray tube ca.1898-1899
This is a rare example of the first tubes made by Radiguet & Massiot Paris.
The Muret tube was built for "fluoroscopy and thick bodies". The tube still contains its vacuum and has a nice purple patina inside, a sign of good use.
Bulb diameter 15cm.
Radiguet & Massiot
  The French Radiguet&Massiot was a 
  leading company in scientific instruments  
  in Paris. This type Muret focus X-ray tube
  has both signs, the single Radiguet label
  outside and Radiguet & Massiot
  stamped inside on the cathode.Massiot
  joined the company from 1899.
  So it is likely to believe that this tube
  was produced around 1899. The Paris St
  Antoine hospital in Paris bought two of
  these tubes in 1899 for 30 Francs for
  their first "chamber of radioscopy".
  Look here for their inventory.
The signed cathode
Radiguet neo-occultism, X-ray entertainment in 1897.
The picture comes from the French 1897 book "Traité de
Radiographie" showing a neo occultism X-ray trick which was practiced by Radiguet, scaring people for fun. The room was littered with fluorescent props, even the clothes were fluorescent which gave a spooky presence. The fluorescence was activated by an X-ray tube in the room.
At that time no one was aware of the harmful radiation. Read here the article from the Lewiston evening Journal from April 2 1897.
Muret tube picture from the book Manuel de Radioscopie et de Radiographie third print 1900.
The potash regulator
The potash regulator (first used by Crookes) is the predecessor of the palladium regulator introduced by Villard.
The regulator tube was needed to restore the 
correct vacuum which constantly changed in
these early tubes when used. After heating the glass regulator stem with a flame, a small amount of gas was released into the tube.
  Puluj phosphorescent lamp
  Johan Puluj was a Ukraine Scientist who
  studied in Vienna and developed this lamp in
  1881 as a new cold light source. 
  The early catalogues tell man could read 
  easily in its light, not aware of the harmful X-
  rays which were produced!
  Due to the fact that the mica plate was built 
  at an angle of 45 degrees and the amount of X-
  rays, X-ray photographs were possible to
  make. The first US medical X-ray photographs
  were made with such a lamp in 1896.

  Here you can find a link to a  PDF with some
  interesting info about Puluj and the X-ray 
  discovery from the international conference
  of the European Society for the History of 
  Science 2006.
  Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton (1863-1930)
  He was one the first to explore medical applications
  and opened the first radiographic laboratory in
  England in 1896.
  In 1908 he published the article "Distant Vision" in
  Nature
describing the use of cathode ray tubes for
  Television.
  The use of the third electrode
  (anode) was an arbitrary thing.
  From the beginning it was
  common with the German tubes
  (as it would  lower the
  resistance) but more   
  uncommon in France and
  England. C.H.F. Müller
  produced two electrode tubes
  specially for France where the
  three anode tubes were called
  bi-anode tubes.
Another Puluj lamp
Height 30cm ~1900

Notice the different build of this tube, even the lower round plate (cathode) has a separate glass support.
Activated tube
Another early Puluj lamp
ca 1900
Activated tube

Radiguet tube with regulator ca 1907.
This tube with a bulb diameter of 15cm is and made in Germany by Schilling from Gehlberg as "model E" and sold by Radiguet & Massiot in Paris.
The regulator has a German DRGM nr: 293815
The Schilling sparkgap regulator.

More info about Schilling can be found on the website of Udo Radke  tubecollection.de
Hittorf-Crookes style x-ray tube ca 1896
This is one of the models Röntgen most likely used at his research and discovery of the x-rays. Made by Gundelach or Lois Müller-Unkel.
X-ray ionisation experiment by Benoist.A drawing from the French magazine La Nature 1896
A small X-ray tube ca1898
Most likely Gundelach. It has a serial number 5658.
Bulb diameter 7,5cm
Most likely Gundelach  X-ray tube 8cm bulb ca 1896.
It has a handwritten low number No3417
The glass tube workshop of A.C. Cossor 1896.

  Above the workshop of Alfred Charles Cossor in
  Clerkenwell London which would later became a
  leading British valve manufacturer.
  This photograph is made in 1896 while some of his
  workers (children!) preparing the glass tubes. Cossor
  was that time the only British firm who could make the
  first X-Ray tubes which were higher qualified than the
  common Crookes tubes and made the first British Braun
  tubes in 1902.
An early signed x-ray tube made by Cossor ca1900  Bulbsize 13cm
As early as March 1896, about two months after Röntgens discovery Radiguet from Paris advertised a complete X ray set in Science illustree scientific weekly.
Some original tubes used by Röntgen (Deutches museum)
The large one is a common Crookes heat tube, the small ones are called Hittorf tubes, later sold as absolute vacuum tubes.
From Science Illustrée May 1896
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