Talking about X-Ray Diffraction in Europe, I'll limit myself to personal experiences. I started with XRD in Amsterdam University, namely structure analysis, but as well powder diffraction for identification of minerals, determination of crystallinity of stretched gelatine and many more such applications. Exclusively, cameras with photographic recording were used, and they are still used in Europe, to a great extent; maybe in 30-40% of all cases. We used a mechanical rectifier controlled by an adjustable spark gap. This system worked fine, till our laboratory cat decided to sniff at the sparks! That was the end of our generator and the cat. The powder samples in our D.S. cameras, mostly glued onto glass fibers were rotated during exposure. As we could not afford small motors, the rotation was done by blowing air against a windmill system mounted on the sample holder. A typical Dutch solution.