Hello, Karl,

The book to which you are referring is probably "The Scientific
American Book of Projects for The Amateur Scientist", and the x ray
article from that book is online. Here is a link to that article:

http://www.noah.org/science/x-ray/stong/

I myself plan on building an electro-mechanical "static electricity"
generator to power the tube. A typical dental x ray tube will operate
at about seventy-five thousand volts, and at about five milliamps.
This makes a Wimshurst electro-mechanical generator a good choice, and
back in the nineteenth century, this is what most amateur radiologists
were using to power their tubes.

By the way, I also plan on building the tube itself, and a mercury
vacuum pump to evacuate it. The high voltage, mercury, and x rays are
all potential health hazards, of course, and so safety will be my first
priority.

Mike Mandaville
on the trailing edge of technology