Philips “METALIX” Tube

Philips air-cooled fixed anode, hot cathode line focus tube, 12” (30 cms) long, made in England, dated 1935. An identical tube is still in the housing, and was in a good working condition when the set-up was dismantled in 1965. It could be run up to 100 kV and 100 Ma.

The cooling is by forced air: A noisy suction fan is in the black section on the left end of the housing, and the air input is through a filter behind the perforations on the right end.

As in other Metalix tubes this tube has a metal waistline of steel-metal alloy (ferro-chrome) fused on either side to the glass tube wall, surrounded by a protective layer of lead, and covered exteriorly by what looks like brass, visible under the removable black bakelite fixings.

Picture of the “Philips METALIX Junior - 1928” as seen in “Mit Röntgen begann die Zukunft” 1981, by Werner Fehr of “CHF Müller-Philips - Hamburg”, p.62.

A Metalix tube, highly similar to the one above, is in a thick bakelite housing protected in its central part by a thick cylinder of heavy lead-containing material. Like the tube pictured below, this tube was made by the Philips Metalix Corp., Mount Vernon, New York.

Pictured here is another large size American made Metalix, about 18” (45cms) long cooled by a huge metal radiator about 6”(15cms) in diameter. The tube is particularly heavy and did not withstand transport from Australia. It is internally protected in its central part by a thick lead-glass cylinder under the black bakelite exterior body.

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