William David Coolidge (23.10.1873-03.02.1975) was an American experimental physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1925). He was born in Hudson. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1896). In 1905-61 he worked at the General Electric Company (in 1932-40 as director of the laboratory, in 1940-44 as vice-president and director of research, and from 1945 as a consultant).
His research was in the field of electronics, powder metallurgy, of both of which he was one of the pioneers, and accelerator technology. He worked on creating high-voltage sources of X-rays and of electron beams. He proposed a new form of X-ray tube (the Coolidge tube). In 1926 he proposed the idea of a cascade X-ray tube, and in 1927, with the help of a three-stage tube, he obtained a beam of electrons emerging from the vacuum into the atmosphere with a record energy of ~900 keV. He developed new methods and produced tungsten wire, which revolutionised the lamp industry, and he laid the foundations of powder metallurgy. In 1923 he constructed a manometer of the bifilar type.
The B. Rumford Medal (1914), the T. Edison Medal (1927), the M. Faraday Medal (1939), the B. Franklin Medal (1944) and others.