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

...from that moment forward I had a portable radio up against my ear!

How old did you say you were Eddie?...lol

I seem to remember around 3500 BC inventing the wheel but perhaps I was dreaming. The wedge is the oldest simple machine, made by our ancestors Homo erectus at least as long ago as 1.2 million years to make stone tools.

The oldest musical instrument in the world, a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal flute is a treasure of global significance. It was discovered in Divje babe cave near Cerkno and has been declared by experts to have been made by Neanderthals. I assume there were drums before that.

I remember well those little transistor radios. That was the XBox of the 50's. I had a toy wood block printing press. We had chemistry sets and my childhood friend Bobby had Bobby and Billy's modal airplane and bomb factory. Made hydrogen gas and put it in balloons and attached fire crackers so it would blow up in the air. It was a very different world from today.

Billy

Yep! I had the Gilbert Chemistry Set and the Erector Set. Then I got some little weather station that had an anemometer it and I thought I was the coolest kid ever. Then came a vacuum forming machine that made little junk from 3x4 pieces of plastic that I learned the hard way couldn't hang over the heating element for too long. A toy rocket that used making soda and vinegar for propulsion. I ruined that by wondering what would happen if I let the chemical reaction go for 5 minutes instead of 1. That exploded at about the 3 minute mark. After that was the Heathkit radio, followed quickly by a battery operated Arvin portable transistor radio. My parents bought me a tabletop radio with FM and a whole new world opened. There was a show at 10pm every night called Doc Nemo's Underground that played music that would never find a path to AM. That was where you heard the Blues Project, BS&T deep album cuts and Jimi Hendrix. And we listened to CKLW from Windsor Ontario and WJR from Detroit. They played the same stuff as WHK in Cleveland, but hey, it was from Detroit, so we were cooler that way!

All because of those little transistors.

Dude! CKLW! Sunday, Sunday night...Detroit dragway...Sibley and Dix...Big Don Daddy Garlits and his hemi under glass...


Guess you had to be there and listen....I did!

Good memory...thanks!

Jeff

CKLW
yeah, I remember
Still here

Slap a couple of screens in there between the filament and the plate and put a bias voltage on one of them and alter the other and waaa laaaa.... you got control of those little electrons. Man I loved vacuum tube theory and playing with those circuits back in the day. I still have a box in my shop with a pair of transformers (Input and output) from a Marshall and a bunch of parts including the tubes.

I only have one transistor amp. All the rest are tube. I have parts for all the tube amps we use in the band. I still like building tube amps. Bruce Zinky is sending me some stuff to put together next week. Someone ask me to build a 100 watt 5150 style amp custom for him. People who want that sort of stuff don't seem to care what it cost. Goes into my mad money account...lol

Keep the transformers Herb. They cost more every year.
Billy

They were actually pretty costly at the time.... Late 70's. I was building it from a schematic I had obtained of the Marshall 50w head. It was actually pretty crystal and loud but for a number of reasons.... especially that it was built all out in the open and was highly dangerous.... and, the fact that I didn't use 6L6s and had a hard time getting the grid bias to stay stable..... I disassembled it and put it into a box when I bought an amp that wasn't as dangerous.

Yes Herb...all this tube stuff of any real wattage is pretty expensive. Transformers being the big ticket items.

Billy

Which is why I've got a box full of them stashed under my workbench, and plan to build a couple amps from scratch once I get some time - in 30 years or so when I retire.