The Music, the Technology, and the Philosophy

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history  - George Bernard Shaw

The Subject of Vacuum Tubes - The Forgotten Past - The Legacy From WWII

 

There... was the real challenge in vacuum tube analysis.  How do you think the Allies went about developing all the data possible on that totally unknown Oslo Report mystery tube?

Do you think having something like today's modern Amplitrex AT1000 electron tube test system and a hammer would have helped the cause back in 1939?

The relationship/s of both electrical and physical forces had to be explored to permit proximity calibrating, and to discover any possible failure event/s that would affect the intended function of the projectile.

Even if the famed Oslo Report came supplied with the tube manual for that tube, without any detailed information on the specific application, any value of the modern Amplitrex AT1000 tube test system may have, now becomes worthless for the task at hand.

Although nomenclature (a set or system of names or terms) between countries can be different, the syntax (a systematic, orderly arrangement of rules) applied to the testing and/or analysis of vacuum tubes can NOT.  The testing and/or analysis of a vacuum tube are NOT the same thing!

Testing and tube testers, due to testing method and tester design, yields very limited data from a SINGLE set of pre selected voltages placed on the actual tube in question.  This limited test data from this single test, is assumed to remain unchanged throughout the unexplored extreme regions of possible tube operation.

To truly explore and analyze a vacuum tube demands the vacuum tube bridge, and/or the "Performance Test" in the specific circuit application the tube will actually be used in.

Anything else is totally Worthless!

A worthless one test fits all conditions tester

A more modern version of the worthless one test fits all conditions tester

 

The General Radio Vacuum Tube Bridge With High Energy Indepentent Sources
For more History on General Radio Download These pdf files.

GR_History.pdf
GRX1935Jun.pdf
GenRad_Experimenter_Sept_1952.pdf

With Creative Engineering The TV-2C/U Can Be Made To Handle Both Tester & Functional Bridge Applications.

    Highly Recommended For Anyone Looking For Precise Documentation On The Subject

 

Government and Department of Defense Letters on the Subject of Vacuum Tube Shelf Life

In Our Forgotten Past - In 1954 The Nike Ajax was world's first operational  surface to air missile.

The Military Takes Vacuum Tubes - From Projectile to Guided Missiles

At the same time the vacuum tube advanced US guided missile development
Lockheed's "Skunk Works" also used vacuum tubes in the early development
their RB57D-2, TR-1, U-2, A-12, and SR-71 Cold War airplanes too.

  

 
In Conclusion:

Did you notice all those 10% carbon resistors in the electronic component configuration found in that first generation of Nike missile system pictured above?  Further observation now calls into question the actual coil and capacitor values too.

Yet, in spite of all this variation in the individual passive and active component tolerances, there seems to be little to no impact on the uniform ability of the missile hitting the intended target.

When proper design technique is followed, greater uniform performance tolerances can be achieved using component parts of a far lesser tolerance.

Robert Tomer is just one of many who have documented these essential insights that made such things possible using vacuum tubes.

These insights have now become just another part of our now forgotten past history from the 1939 WW-2 era through the present.