JF Ptak Science Books Post 2463
I've bumped into another issue of the Physical Review (December 1911, pp 409-430, volume II (second series), #6) with the important William D. Coolidge paper, "A Powerful Roentgen Ray Tube With a Pure Electron Discharge".
A decade-and-a-half after Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of x-rays (an epochal paper published at the tail end of 1895) this is the first appearance of what we think of as the modern X-Ray tube--a design that would be used for decades to come, and which provided clear and more accurate that had been seen, in a way opening this world up, well, exponentially. It is a very significant contribution to the history of science, and it was cool to find it again by chance.
[Source: Wikipedia, showing the Coolidge tube ca. 1917.]
I'm going to use three paragraphs from the Health Physics Society site to explain Coolidge and his breakthrough, all the work of David J. Allard, MS, CHP ("William D. Coolidge Invented the Modern X-Ray Tube 100 Years Ago"):
"....Shortly after, in 1913, he [Coolidge] published a paper in Physical Review describing "A Powerful Roentgen Ray Tube With a Pure Electron Discharge." This tube used a tungsten filament as a thermionic source of electrons, with high vacuum, to bombard a tungsten anode target. Great improvements in x-ray tube stability and performance were obtained with the "hot cathode" or "Coolidge tube."
"With some variation in filament and target geometry, this 100-year-old invention is the same basic x-ray tube used today. In 1932 Coolidge became director of the GE R&D Laboratory, then in 1940 vice president and director of research. In 1941 he was a member of a small committee, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to evaluate the military importance of research on uranium. This committee's report led to the establishment of the Manhattan District for nuclear weapons development during World War II."
"Coolidge had 83 patents to his credit and numerous awards and honorary degrees and in 1975 was elected to the National Inventor's Hall of Fame. At the time he was the only inventor to receive this honor in his lifetime."
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