X-Ray Tube

William Coolidge, USA, patent 1,203,495 of 1916. The ductile-tungsten tube that made imaging clinical.

Overview

Coolidge's General Electric tube, patents from 1913, used hot tungsten cathodes for steady, controllable X-ray output. Earlier gas tubes were temperamental and dosed patients wildly. The Coolidge tube standardized radiography within years, powering battlefield medicine in World War I. Deep therapy for cancer followed. GE kept him as director of research, where he later contributed to radar. Roentgen gave X-rays freely; Coolidge industrialized them safely.