X-ray Tube

As Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen himself pointed out, he carried out experiments with a Hittorf, Crookes, Lenard or similar tube in order to study cathode rays.
Such a tube consists in its basic form of a cathode and an anode (formerly called an anticathode) fused inside an evacuated glass tube. In a high voltage circuit electrons (e-) are accelerated from the cathode towards the anode. Their impact upon the anode or the glass wall produces the X-rays discovered by Röntgen.