Accession No
2065
Brief Description
Macalaster Wiggin-type X-ray tube, repaired by Cavendish Laboratory technician Ebeneezer Everett, English, c. 1913
Origin
England; Cambridge
Maker
Everett, Ebeneezer [repairer]
Class
physics
Earliest Date
1913
Latest Date
1913
Inscription Date
Material
glass; metal (brass, copper, tungsten, at least two other metals); paper
Dimensions
length 600mm; breadth 155mm; height 235mm
Special Collection
Cavendish collection
Provenance
Transferred from Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 1974.
Inscription
‘PAT. DEC. 30:13’ (target)
‘Repaired + Pumped. June 2. 1927 E.E.’ (mss sticker on tube)
Description Notes
Macalaster Wiggin-type X-ray tube, English, c. 1913.
Glass tube with central spherical chamber. White metal anode in side arm ending in disc. Long tube from sphere containing white metal cathode ending in concave disc at top of short cylinder. Opposite the cathode is a long glass tube containing the connection for the target, which consists of an open white metal ring, linked to a copper (?) cylinder cut at an angle with a central mica (?) disc. Side arm evacuation tube. Copper section of target carries serial number and patent details: ‘PAT. DEC. 30:13’. Brass caps on electrodes to aid electrical connection; spiral brass wire connects anode and target. Paper label with MS note reads ‘Repaired + Pumped. June 2. 1927 E.E.’
Condition good; complete.
References
Events
Description
Ebenezer Everett (1865-1933) was born in Chesterton, just outside Cambridge. In 1886 he was poached by a desperate J.J. Thomson from the Chemistry Laboratory. Thomson was no glassblower himself, and needed an expert assistant for his research. (He once confessed in frustration that he believed all of the glass in the Laboratory was bewitched!)
The partnership between J.J. and E.E. lasted 41 years. He is estimated to have made over 5,000 pieces of apparatus, and taught numerous students. His contribution to science was recognised by an M.A. by the University – (unfortunately, still) a very unusual honour for a technician.
Everett created the very first X-ray tubes in Cambridge in early 1896. The manufacture of X-ray tubes became quickly commercialised. This example contains a tungsten cathode patented by W.D. Coolidge of the General Electric Research Laboratory and was likely made in the U.S.A.. It was thriftily repaired and re-pumped by Everett in 1927.
10/07/2025
Created by: Hannah Price on 10/07/2025
Description
This X-ray tube was originally used in the Cavendish Laboratory of Experimental Physics in the early 20th century. A paper note on tube reads "Repaired + Pumped. June 1927. E.E."
E.E. is Ebeneezer Everett, virtuosic glass-blower and personal assistant to Cavendish Professor J.J. Thomson. The partnership between Thomson and Everett lasted 41 years, and in that time 'E.E.' is estimated to have made over 5,000 pieces of apparatus, including the instruments Thomson used to establish the existence of the electron in 1897. He was, very unusually for a technician, awarded an honorary M.A. by the University of Cambridge recognition of his achievement.
J.J. was intellectually brilliant but physically clumsy. Everett "found it necessary not to encourage him to handle the instruments". We don't know who was guilty of breaking this particular example.
26/02/2025
Created by: Hannah Price on 26/02/2025
FM:44951
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