A design of an inexpensive demountableX-ray tube

An inexpensive and simple demountable X-ray source, having facilities to excite X-rays either by bombardment of a target by electrons or by fluorescence, has been developed using a stainless steel chamber having six ports. A cathode assembly from a burnt out sealed off Machlett X-ray tube was carefully removed and reused in the present set-up after replacing the filament. A conventional vacuum system consisting of a rotary and diffusion pumps has been utilized for evacuating the chamber. The set-up can be conveniently utilized to carry out X-ray emission spectroscopic work.