DIY X-Ray & Auto Jigger transmitter

[Dennis M]

Pic's of a couple of interesting pages from an old Home Mechanic's book

[GrimJosef]

The first one's a terrifying page, more like. Don't try that at home. Really.

Cheers,

GJ

[turretslug]

Party pooper! I was going to get a nice load of calcium tungstate from the chemist's first thing in the morning.

That is truly bananas- I wonder if anyone did ever try it?

There is one in Oxford Science Museum, the x-ray.

[Radio Wrangler]

Calm yourselves down.

Relax, and have a nice glass of this pat pending radium water. It glows!

David

[emeritus]

I have a facsimile volume of "The Model Engineer" for the second half of 1904 that features several readers' X-ray machines that use Wimshurst machines. The ME did a booklet on how to make one yourself. It also interviews the 18 year old author of a book on Radium and other radioactive elements, in which he describes how his experiments caused mutations in tadpoles. I do wonder if his house in South London managed to survive the Blitz, and if so, what its background radiation level might still be! There are also items on the need for experimenters to obtain wireless licences that were being introduced for the first time that year.

[retailer]

As 16 yr old highschool students my friends and I had a go at an Xray machine - we used to jump on the train after school and visit a salvage store located in the east end of the CBD called Walthams - just to look and oggle and at times buy, the store clerk was not a great deal older than us and we got talking, he gave each of us (3) a complete unopened carton of ex military 6H6 diodes, we proudly carried our booty home on the train - but what to do with such a useless valve we thought - high voltage! - an Xray machine what else!

With many hundreds of valves to play with and destroy we strung them in series with capacitors to make a voltage muliplying ladder using the secondary of an old radio mains transformer 385-0-385, which gave us over 700v to start with. For the Xray tube we used a defunct 80G rectifier, with all of the internal elements tied together and the valve fixed in a horizontal position, a few layers of heavy duty aluimium foil was closely glued to the dome top at an angle so if any xrays were produced with luck they would be directed down to our 620 film carrier. We did have some success being able to Xray dead animals, plants and the like and on one occasion someone volunteered their hand (it wasn't me). Needless to say failure rate of the weakling 6H6 was very high, the internal fire works just visible at the very top where the external metallic coating ended were fun to watch, but we eventually tired of replacing the failed valves and waiting until school the next day to use the darkroom.

[Viewmaster]

https://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Xray-Machine/

[rontech]

Originally Posted by emeritus

I have a facsimile volume of "The Model Engineer" for the second half of 1904 that features several readers' X-ray machines that use Wimshurst machines. The ME did a booklet on how to make one yourself. It also interviews the 18 year old author of a book on Radium and other radioactive elements, in which he describes how his experiments caused mutations in tadpoles. I do wonder if his house in South London managed to survive the Blitz, and if so, what its background radiation level might still be! There are also items on the need for experimenters to obtain wireless licences that were being introduced for the first time that year.

"Wimshurst" reminded me that I made one of these devices back in 1956. Two Leyden Jars made from jam jars with inner and outer cylinders of engineers brass shim sheets.

The jam jar glass was poor electrically and great fat sparks would snap through the glass. In operation, the machine produced 4" sparks and also blotted out our TV screen in a shower of white spots!

[Herald1360]

Curious (or maybe not?) that the radio related item here has attracted no comments. Has no-one played with spark transmitters in their wellspent youth?

[McMurdo]

The texan glassblower/radio repairer on youtube, Glasslinger, shows his DIY x-ray in operation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0G4-JicCIw

[Techman]

Originally Posted by retailer

We did have some success being able to Xray dead animals, plants and the like and on one occasion someone volunteered their hand (it wasn't me). Needless to say failure rate of the weakling 6H6 was very high, the internal fire works just visible at the very top where the external metallic coating ended were fun to watch, but we eventually tired of replacing the failed valves and waiting until school the next day to use the darkroom.

Great fun! I enjoyed reading that.

I left an old Xray tube at work when I retired. Wish I'd brought it home with me. I expect it went straight in the skip after I'd gone

Edit: I've just remembered that I think I've got a high voltage generator as shown in the first link in your first post stashed away somewhere in a long forgotten corner.

[ionburn]

An interesting subject. It reminds me of younger days at school. There was a book I borrowed from the library whose subject (and maybe title) was home X-ray experiments. Perhaps luckily it was beyond practice for me at the time (way before I was doing anything with electronics). It would be an interesting one to have now. It was interesting what, now considered unsafe or illegal, subjects could be readily accessed in those days.

[Electronpusher0]

Having worked for a medical imaging company where I specialised in image quality of x-ray machines I have far too much respect for X-rays to play with them at home.

GE have a facinating private museum of vintage x-ray machines at their x-ray tube factory in Buc near Versailles.

Peter

[Keith956]

There was an X ray machine at the Clarks shoe shop in the 60's, I can remember being very excited to get my feet x rayed as a kid!

[AC/HL]

They were common until the health implications were realised: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope
Dentists too are very aware of the dangers, they actually leave the room!

[Electronpusher0]

Originally Posted by Keith956

There was an X ray machine at the Clarks shoe shop in the 60's, I can remember being very excited to get my feet x rayed as a kid!

Those foot x-ray machines were terrible, soft x-rays which cause the most damage and aimed from under the foot towards the Fluorescent screen and through that straight at the person viewing.

Peter

There was one of those in Geoff Leggs shoe shop in Ely (cambs.) in the early 70's, My dad (a radiographer) refused point blank for me to have a go, Geoff said it didn't work anyway. I found out much later it still did at the time.

[Radio1950]

When I was about 14, I made up an "Xray" thing from a 150 watt lamp with large glass bulb and two auto ignition coils in series fed from an old radio transformer with 5 + 6.3 V AC heater windings in series, and using an interrupter made by altering some relay to operate as a buzzer.
The bulb of the light bulb was covered externally to 75 % or so with aluminum foil.

The idea came from an Australian Hobby Magazine from the 1950s, whose name I cannot remember.
It had all sorts of stuff, a lot of dreamy impractical things, but it did inspire a lot of us.
My favourite article was A Garden Soil Battery.

I don't know if my "Xray" produced anything, probably not.
I seem to recall lots of long blue and purple sparks.
My mate had a red elbow after some "exposure".
Possibly a coincidence.
I had just run out of Calcium Tungstate; it always happens at the wrong time!

In late 1950s, there was a store in Brisbane called TC Beirnes, and I remember having my shoes fitted with their Shoe Xray Machine.


I made up a spark transmitter using the same 2X ignition coil apparatus, and connected it somehow to a long wire antenna which I had for Short Wave reception.
There was a large coil from a junked Marconi 1154 involved somehow.
I remember one day listening to a VK3 guy from Victoria on 14 Mc/s calling CQ on AM.
I keyed up my transmitter and replied in morse with a dummy callsign.
He actually replied!
He told me that I had my fun, and now please "clear off".
That's about 850 miles.
I was so proud!
.

[rontech]

My homemade wimshurst machine ( 1955 ), would produce streams of sparks when I held a 100w light bulb by the glass envelope and brought the bayonet cap close to the machine. Sparks streamed from the filament to the points where my fingers held the glass. Only a v slight tingle could be felt though.