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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crookes tube | 2/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_tube | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:36:41.769217+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Discovery of X-rays ===
When the voltage applied to a Crookes tube is high enough, around 5,000 volts or greater, it can accelerate the electrons to a high enough velocity to create X-rays when they hit the anode or the glass wall of the tube. The fast electrons emit X-rays when their path is bent sharply as they pass near the high electric charge of an atom's nucleus, a process called bremsstrahlung, or they knock an atom's inner electrons into a higher energy level, and these in turn emit X-rays as they return to their former energy level, a process called X-ray fluorescence. Many early Crookes tubes undoubtedly generated X-rays, because early researchers such as Ivan Pulyui had noticed that they could make foggy marks on nearby unexposed photographic plates. On November 8, 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was operating a Crookes tube covered with black cardboard when he noticed that a nearby fluorescent screen glowed faintly. He realized that some unknown invisible rays from the tube were able to pass through the cardboard and make the screen fluoresce. He found that they could pass through books and papers on his desk. Röntgen began to investigate the rays full-time, and on December 28, 1895, published the first scientific research paper on X-rays. Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics (in 1901) for his discoveries. The many applications of X-rays created the first practical use for Crookes tubes, and workshops began manufacturing specialized Crookes tubes to generate X-rays, the first X-ray tubes. The anode was made of a heavy metal, usually platinum, which generated more X-rays, and was tilted at an angle to the cathode, so the X-rays would radiate through the side of the tube. The cathode had a concave spherical surface which focused the electrons into a small spot around 1 mm in diameter on the anode, in order to approximate a point source of X-rays, which gave the sharpest radiographs. These cold cathode type X-ray tubes were used until about 1920, when they were superseded by the hot cathode Coolidge X-ray tube.
== Operation ==
Crookes tubes are cold cathode tubes, meaning that they do not have a heated filament in them that releases electrons as the later electronic vacuum tubes usually do. Instead, electrons are generated by the ionization of the residual air by a high DC voltage (from a few kilovolts to about 100 kilovolts) applied between the cathode and anode electrodes in the tube, usually by an induction coil (a "Ruhmkorff coil"). The Crookes tubes require a small amount of air in them to function, from about 10−6 to 5×10−8 atmosphere (7×10−4 - 4×10−5 torr or 0.1-0.006 pascal). When high voltage is applied to the tube, the electric field accelerates the small number of electrically charged ions and free electrons always present in the gas, created by natural processes like photoionization and radioactivity. The electrons collide with other gas molecules, knocking electrons off them and creating more positive ions. The electrons go on to create more ions and electrons in a chain reaction called a Townsend discharge. All the positive ions are attracted to the cathode or negative electrode. When they strike it, they knock large numbers of electrons out of the surface of the metal, which in turn are repelled by the cathode and attracted to the anode or positive electrode. These are the cathode rays. Enough of the air has been removed from the tube that most of the electrons can travel the length of the tube without striking a gas molecule. The high voltage accelerates these low-mass particles to a high velocity (about 37,000 miles per second, or 59,000 km/s, about 20 percent of the speed of light, for a typical tube voltage of 10 kV). When they get to the anode end of the tube, they have so much momentum that, although they are attracted to the anode, many fly past it and strike the end wall of the tube. When they strike atoms in the glass, they knock their orbital electrons into a higher energy level. When the electrons fall back to their original energy level, they emit light. This process, called cathodoluminescence, causes the glass to glow, usually yellow-green. The electrons themselves are invisible, but the glow reveals where the beam of electrons strikes the glass. Later on, researchers painted the inside back wall of the tube with a phosphor, a fluorescent chemical such as zinc sulfide, in order to make the glow more visible. After striking the wall, the electrons eventually make their way to the anode, flow through the anode wire, the power supply, and back to the cathode. The full details of the action in a Crookes tube are complicated, because it contains a nonequilibrium plasma of positively charged ions, electrons, and neutral atoms which are constantly interacting. At higher gas pressures, above 10−6 atm (0.1 Pa), this creates a glow discharge; a pattern of different colored glowing regions in the gas, depending on the pressure in the tube (see diagram). The details were not fully understood until the development of plasma physics in the early 20th century.
== Experiments == During the last quarter of the 19th century Crookes tubes were used in dozens of historic experiments to try to find out what cathode rays were. There were two theories: British scientists Crookes and Cromwell Varley believed they were particles of 'radiant matter', that is, electrically charged atoms. German researchers E. Wiedemann, Heinrich Hertz, and Eugen Goldstein believed they were 'aether vibrations', some new form of electromagnetic waves, and were separate from what carried the current through the tube. The debate continued until J. J. Thomson measured cathode ray’s mass, proving they were a previously unknown negatively charged particle in an atom, the first subatomic particle, which he called a 'corpuscle' but was later renamed the 'electron'.