Hi guys,

If none of this is of interest feel free to tell me to take a hike...lol

In the USA we call vacuum tubes "tubes", in Europe they are referred to as valves.

Here is why. A quoit from my friend Rob.

"Edison discovered while working on the light bulb that if you put a wire in a vacuum tube and heat the wire (light bulb filament) electrons would "boil off" into the vacuum. The kinetic energy of the hot, vibrating electrons in the hot wire actually knock electrons off the wire into the tube vacuum. He also discovered that since opposite electrical charges are attracted to one another he could put a positively charged 'plate' inside the tube to collect the free electrons and create a current from the hot filament (cathode) across the gap to the plate. This is the 'Edison Effect,' which acts as a one-way electronic valve--heat the filament and electrons flow, remove the heat and the flow stops. It's a one-way valve because the plate is not heated so electrons can't flow from the plate to the filament. This is why vacuum tubes are referred to as 'valves.' "

(a light bulb is actually a single electrode tube!)

The short version of how we got here. Light bulbs get invented, we find out we can put other stuff in the light bulb and create tubes/valves that lets us create electronics. December 16 1947 the transistor was invented and we were off to the races!!

From the light bulb in 1879 to today...all this became possible! including flying helicopters around on Mars.

The light bulb, the brighter side of life.

Billy

“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”