page_title: X-ray
section_title: 20th century and beyond
hierarchical_section_title: X-ray / History / 20th century and beyond
caption_attribution_description: English: High resolution x-ray image of a spider. The phase-contrast technique provides much higher contrast than normal absorption-contrast x-ray imaging, making it possible to see smaller details. It has become an important method for visualizing cellular and histological structures in a wide range of biological and medical studies. There are several technologies being used for x-ray phase-contrast imaging, all utilizing different principles to convert phase variations in the x-rays emerging from an object into intensity variations. These include propagation-based phase contrast, Talbot interferometry, refraction-enhanced imaging, and x-ray interferometry. Phase contrast requires an x-ray source that can generate very small and very bright focal spots. In the case shown here, the source is a metal-jet-anode microfocus x-ray tube, where the solid metal anode of a normal tube is replaced with a jet of liquid metal. This allows extremely high power density (&gt;500 kW/mm2) and extremely small focal spots (5-30 µm).
context_page_description: An X-ray, or X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometres to 10 nanometres, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 124 eV to 124 keV. X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays. In many languages, X-radiation is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered it on November 8, 1895. He named it X-radiation to signify an unknown type of radiation. Spellings of X-ray in English include the variants x-ray, xray, and X ray.
context_section_description: The many applications of X-rays immediately generated enormous interest. Workshops began making specialized versions of Crookes tubes for generating X-rays and these first-generation cold cathode or Crookes X-ray tubes were used until about 1920.
  A typical early 20th century medical x-ray system consisted of a Ruhmkorff coil connected to a cold cathode Crookes X-ray tube. A spark gap was typically connected to the high voltage side in parallel to the tube and used for diagnostic purposes. The spark gap allowed detecting the polarity of the sparks, measuring voltage by the length of the sparks thus determining the "hardness" of the vacuum of the tube, and it provided a load in the event the X-ray tube was disconnected. To detect the hardness of the tube, the spark gap was initially opened to the widest setting. While the coil was operating, the operator reduced the gap until sparks began to appear. A tube in which the spark gap began to spark at around 2 1/2 inches was considered soft (low vacuum) and suitable for thin body parts such as hands and arms. A 5-inch spark indicated the tube was suitable for shoulders and knees. A 7-9 inch spark would indicate a higher vacuum suitable for imaging the abdomen of larger individuals. Since the spark gap was connected in parallel to the tube, the spark gap had to be opened until the sparking ceased in order to operate the tube for imaging. Exposure time for photographic plates was around half a minute for a hand to a couple of minutes for a thorax. The plates may have a small addition of fluorescent salt to reduce exposure times.
  Crookes tubes were unreliable. They had to contain a small quantity of gas (invariably air) as a current will not flow in such a tube if they are fully evacuated. However, as time passed, the X-rays caused the glass to absorb the gas, causing the tube to generate "harder" X-rays until it soon stopped operating. Larger and more frequently used tubes were provided with devices for restoring the air, known as "softeners". These often took the form of a small side tube which contained a small piece of mica, a mineral that traps relatively large quantities of air within its structure. A small electrical heater heated the mica, causing it to release a small amount of air, thus restoring the tube's efficiency. However, the mica had a limited life, and the restoration process was difficult to control.
  In 1904, John Ambrose Fleming invented the thermionic diode, the first kind of vacuum tube. This used a hot cathode that caused an electric current to flow in a vacuum. This idea was quickly applied to X-ray tubes, and hence heated-cathode X-ray tubes, called "Coolidge tubes", completely replaced the troublesome cold cathode tubes by about 1920.
  In about 1906, the physicist Charles Barkla discovered that X-rays could be scattered by gases, and that each element had a characteristic X-ray spectrum. He won the 1917 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.
  In 1912, Max von Laue, Paul Knipping, and Walter Friedrich first observed the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. This discovery, along with the early work of Paul Peter Ewald, William Henry Bragg, and William Lawrence Bragg, gave birth to the field of X-ray crystallography.
  In 1913, Henry Moseley performed crystallography experiments with X-rays emanating from various metals and formulated Moseley's law which relates the frequency of the X-rays to the atomic number of the metal.
  The Coolidge X-ray tube was invented the same year by William D. Coolidge. It made possible the continuous emissions of X-rays. Modern X-ray tubes are based on this design, often employing the use of rotating targets which allow for significantly higher heat dissipation than static targets, further allowing higher quantity X-ray output for use in high powered applications such as rotational CT scanners.
  The use of X-rays for medical purposes (which developed into the field of radiation therapy) was pioneered by Major John Hall-Edwards in Birmingham, England. Then in 1908, he had to have his left arm amputated because of the spread of X-ray 
caption: Phase-contrast X-ray image of spider
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