The Philips “Clinical” Fluoroscope
Total weight 2.9Kgs. Wooden skeleton. 32x38cms base and 40cms high. Folding side-arms and retractable bellows. Light yellow 24x30cms fluorescent viewing screen covered on the viewer’s side by a protective glass sheet of low weight and of unknown lead equivalent. The fluorescent material is probably calcium tungstate. The bellows are in excellent condition reinforced on the four corners of the “pyramid” with what looks and feels like natural leather. This particular fluoroscope, bearing the “Philips” brand, is undated, but similar fluoroscopes are seen in pictures (see below) depicting the early days of radiology. Some such fluoroscopes were still in use during the 2^nd decade of the 20^th Century but have been progressively abandoned when manufacturers started building dedicated x-ray equipment with some protection, and which could be used for either radiography or fluoroscopy. No precise dating or futher information is available from the makers. The picture to the left is reproduced from the Nov. 2005 issue of “The Invisible Light”, the Journal of the British Society for the History of Radiology. The picture to the right with a caption is from “The Trail of the Invisible Light” by E.R.N.Grigg, Charles C. Thomas, ed, 1965, p40.

	Go to Category Index
	Go to Main Page