Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. An X-ray tube is a vacuum tube that produces X-rays. They are used in X-ray machines. X-rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, an ionizing radiation with wavelengths shorter than ultraviolet light. X-ray tubes evolved from experimental Crookes tubes with which X-rays were first discovered in the late 1800s, and the availability of this controllable source of X-rays created the field of radiography, the imaging of opaque objects with penetrating radiation. X-ray tubes are also used in CAT scanners, airport luggage scanners, X-ray crystallography, and for industrial inspection. As with any vacuum tube, there is a cathode, which emits electrons into the vacuum and an anode to collect the electrons, thus establishing a flow of electrical current, known as the beam, through the tube.