The things pictured here are all related to X-ray systems. The systems include medical diagnostic X-ray systems, radiation therapy devices, and industrial X-ray imaging systems.
Above is a 225 kV (kilovolt) "flying spot" X-ray source (a vacuum tube). In real life, the thing is about a meter tall. On the left are some vertical copper pipes. To the immediate right of those is a rather dirty looking "stepped" assembly also made of copper (and stainless steel). The copper is dirty looking because it oxidized when the tube was baked out (to improve vacuum). On the side of the copper block facing away from us, the block is attached to the stainless steel assembly that forms the rest of the body of the tube. Attached to the copper, inside the vacuum, is a (vertical) strip of tungsten about 1/2 meter long (the "target").
The rest of the tube is devoted to shooting an electron beam at that tungsten strip and sweeping it from one end to the other (e.g. top to bottom). (The beam originates in the cylindrical volume to the far right.) The electrons make mostly heat and also some X-rays. Because the electron beam is swept, the X-ray spot looks like it is flying along the tungsten strip. The device operates at 10 kW, so there is a lot of X-rays and a ton of heat. The heat is why there is so much copper: it conducts heat well. The copper pipes carry water to cool the copper block and therefore the tungsten target. All in all, a rather intimidating piece of equipment.
You're getting the hang of this, so you've probably figured out that this is also an X-ray tube but here the beam is going from left to right. (Note again the dirty copper.) In this case, instead of smoothly flying along, the beam is stepping from point to point inside
More to come
