Anecdotes about the Early Days of X-Ray Optics.

An anecdotal description of the trials and tribulations encountered by the first investigators in the field of x-ray optics starting in the late 1940s and how they managed to overcome them is provided. Some of the players, in addition to the author, included Paul Kirkpatrick, Hussein El Sum, and Howard Pattee of Stanford. At the University of Redlands we became interested in producing an x-ray microscope based on the concepts of holography which Dennis Gabor had demonstrated. This led to correspondence with Gabor and the opportunity to meet him and many other investigators at the first International Conference on X-Ray Microscopy and Microradiography held in Cambridge, England, in 1956. With the help of V.E. Cosslett and William Nixon, a point-focus x-ray tube was obtained by the University of Redlands for its experiments in x-ray holography in the1950s.