Kesselring Tube with Unusual Anode (ca. 1900 -1910) |
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This particular tube belonged to M. J. Gross who worked with Dr. Coolidge at General Electric in Schenectady N.Y. Gross later became Vice President of the GE X-ray Company. During the 1930s and 1940s, Gross and Zed Attlee formed the core of Coolidge's research and design team. It was manufactured by the Kesselring X-ray Tube Co. of Chicago Illinois. In addition to a serial number (10144) and the manufacturer's name, the arm surrounding the cathode is etched with the following "Patent Nov. 23, 1897" and the patent number: 594,086. This patent date and number sometimes appears on Kesselring tubes of very different design than this one. The interesting thing about this tube is what I can only describe as a hollow aluminum guide tube attached to the anode. I do not know the intended purpose of this design, but my guess is that the "guide tube" was to there to help produce a small focal spot of electrons impinging on the target. The smaller the focal spot, the sharper the x-ray image. Since the "guide tube" also encloses the target, any emitted x-rays would be filtered, i.e., the aluminum would attenuate the soft (low energy) x-rays. Of course, it is possible that the primary purpose of this tube was to filter the x-rays instead of (or in addition to) producing a small focal point. Tubes using "interior filters" were produced around 1905-1910, but they do not seem to have been very popular. Size: approximately 23" long with 7" bulb diameter Kindly donated by Malvern J. Gross Jr. in memory of his father |
