~j0ule

Invented in 1913 by William D. Coolidge, the Coolidge tube is by far the most popular method used to generate x-rays. Essentially it’s just a thermionic diode, but one optimized for high voltages and high powers. Like a thermionic diode a Coolidge tube

The 2x2A is a vacuum rectifier that, before the advent of the silicon diode, was used to rectify the high voltage needed for fun things such as television tubes. Now the silicon diode replaced the 2×2 nearly 40 years ago at the time of this writing, but

In 1895, a professor by the name of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen discovered a source of invisible rays which were capable of penetrating materials not normally translucent to ordinary light. Not only this, but these mysterious rays also caused certain chemicals

Nonionizing radiation, the stuff of microwave, infrared and visible light doesn’t have the energy needed to break chemical bonds, so we may sit out in the sun and get bombarded with a thousand watts and feel no ill effects. Once we reach ultraviolet tho

By far the most common radiation detector, the Geiger-Müller tube itself is nothing more than a highly modified neon lamp. Its method of operation is rather simple. The GM tube is a partially evacuated tube containing low pressure inert gas; typicall