Featured artifacts: X-ray Tubes

I walked into the Benton County Historical Museum's collection workroom and saw this 5-foot item sitting on a cart.  The Horner collection contains many pieces of scientific equipment.  Most of the time I don't have a clue what they do but the tags on this one said it was an x-ray tube.

GE Coolidge X-Ray tube

Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays in 1895 and won the Nobel Prize for his work. The first clinical medicine use of x-rays soon followed (1896).  Scientists then worked at improving x-ray tubes to improve their power and reliability and to increase the sharpness of the image they produced. The modern x-ray tube was developed by General Electric Company researcher William Coolidge and patented in 1916.   GE became a leading producer of x-ray devices including early portable x-ray machines used in military hospitals in World War I.

Zed J. Atlee graduated from Oregon State University in 1929 with a BS degree in electrical engineering and was hired by General Electric's Tube Division.  He “improved instrumentation for crystal analysis and a rotating tube for medical therapy.”  He also helped develop the one-million-volt x-ray tube for industrial uses.

One of the first GE 1 Million Volt X-Ray Tubes

Atlee was awarded a honorary Doctorate of Engineering from OSU in 1943 and is included in the university's Engineering Hall of Fame for his role in “establishing a leadership position for the USA in x-ray techniques.”  He sent these tubes to long-time OSU engineering professor Samuel Graf, who 

donated them to the Horner Museum.

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon