Siemens “Spherix”

This early compact mobile unit, introduced in the early thirties and rated 60 kV and 10 mA, had only one control: the hand-held mechanical timer. This particular unit dates back to the early fifties, but such units were still in production until the Sixties.

According to the brochure “Siemens....100 years of X-Ray” published in 1995, the unit is described as the “best selling, best-known diagnostic x-ray generator of its time….Forty thousand systems were manufactured over the span of forty years.

The oil-filled “sphere” measured only 22 cms in diameter, and yet it contained the x-ray tube, the high-tension transformer, and the filament transformer”. The x-ray tube insert is the Siemens RG 10ö (The filament still tests OK !).

This particular “Spherix” was salvaged from scrap found in the hospital where I started my training in Radiology, in 1957. It was by that time in frequent use for bed-side radiography and I am indebted to Mr. Gabriel Thomas for having it in my collection.

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