The Production of X-rays of Very Short Wave Length

Abstract

THANKS to the initiative, vision, and courage of the medical pioneers, the therapeutic application of the x-rays was started very soon after their discovery. It is interesting to see how rapidly the new knowledge derived from more recent fundamental physical research has been usefully applied to the further development of the art of radiology. It is also interesting to note the extent to which modern physical science must be invoked to explain the various processes involved in the production, mensuration, and therapeutic application of the x-rays. If we start with the electrons caroming about under thermal agitation in the filament spiral of the cathode, we first see them liberated thermally and then driven by the electrostatic field, and directed by means of an electrostatic electron lens, toward the target. During their flight we are unable to keep track of them very satisfactorily For, in accordance with the principle of indeterminacy, we cannot know accurately both the velocity and the position of a g...