In the footsteps of visionaries
and Nobel Prize laureates.

X-Ray Modules:

1979 - Nobel Prize in Medicine

Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield

Developing the first CT scanner

In 1967, when he was asked to develop a new product line by his employer (EMI), professor Godfrey Hounsfield suggested what eventually became CT scanning. 

In 1968 Hounsfield was granted UK Patent No. 1283915 for "A Method of and Apparatus for Examination of a Body by Radiation such as X or Gamma Radiation" for his new scanner and its technology — co-developed with Allan Cormack.

Thanks to the expertise of our X-Ray Modules business (Comet X-ray) that delivered a tailor-made x-ray tube, he was able to conduct the first clinical CT scan on 1 October 1, 1971 at the Atkinson Morley Hospital. He became the first to show discrimination between soft tissues, tumors and blood clots in clinical use at acceptable cost and dose. For this impressive milestone, he was awarded with the Nobel prize for “physiology or Medicine” in 1979.

Plasma Control Technologies:

1917 - Suggest. Nobel Prize in Physics

Nikola Tesla

Building on the genius' legacy

In November 1915, the New York Times suggested that the father of our Comet Plasma Control Technologies' vacuum capacitors Nikola Tesla together with inventor Edison were to share that year's Nobel Prize in Physics.

Which didn’t happen. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1915 was awarded jointly to Sir William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays." Rumors say that he refused to share it with his old rival. Nevertheless, Tesla was the recipient of the Edison Medal in 1917, the highest honor that the American Institute of Electrical Engineers could bestow. 

Nikola Tesla patented the first vacuum capacitor in 1896 but the production started only in the 40's. A milestone we are closely linked to thanks to our former licensor Machlett Laboratories from which we got all the legacy.

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X-Ray Systems:

1901 - Nobel Prize in Physics

Carl Heinrich Florenz Müller and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Creating the first x-rays

The long history of our X-Ray systems business (Yxlon) dates back to the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1895 and the construction of the first X-ray tube by Carl Heinrich Florenz Müller in Hamburg in 1896.

Röntgen, the very first scientist in the world to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in November 1901, made an enormous contribution to society by enabling faster and more effective detection of disease through X-rays and later enabling improved safety through industrial inspection.

But all this would have been nothing if Carl Heinrich Florenz Müller had not created the first X-ray tube based on Röntgen's invention.

In 1927, the company passed from C.H.F. Müller into the ownership of Philips AG. The Philips Industrial X-ray Division, which formed over time alongside the Medical X-ray business, became independent in 1997 under the name Yxlon International and has been part of the Comet since 2007.

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