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Just read on Google Western Electric to build 300B's again

Back in the 1990s I found, new in opened boxes, a couple of Western Electric 300B tubes with the engraved bases from the 1930s. At the time, surplus stores were using the Antique Electric Supply "buy" list as the de facto price of tubes since they could simply sell them to AES for the same price. Well, the owner of the surplus store almost choked when he found AES would pay $130 each for the tubes. He was embarrassed to ask $260 for the pair of tubes so gave me a 10% discount for buying both tubes.

All that said, here we are over 20 years later and I am still using 300B tubes for amplification. Am I using genuine engraved base Western Electric 300Bs? Hell no I sold those for a couple of grand years ago and bought Tamura 5002 output transformers and an Arcam CD23T CD player! I am using a much better tube, the EML 320 XLS.
 
The rights and tooling don't get ya the most important part, the people who handle the pieces and build the tubes. I'll go out on a limb and say the last "Real" WE300Bs, came out of the Bendix plant in KC MO. They moved the tube operation to ARK, but I never heard of them actually getting anything built? Really good tubes almost need generations of makers that pass down the art of tube making IMHO.
Remember that brand new outfit that was going to start making ultra high end 12AX7s a few years ago? There was a big thread on that deal, but I never saw a single tube for sale, always prototypes. I just don't think it's so easy, and look how the Chinese and Russian tubes are getting so much better now. I think it's plain old "know your trade" type experience.
 
Rumour had it that back in the day, WE could tool up to provide a replacement on order for any tube they ever made.
 
jaymanaa said:
The rights and tooling don't get ya the most important part, the people who handle the pieces and build the tubes.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't be surprised to see Shuguang or some such do the actual production to the required design specs. Pretty common amongst "premium tube" distributors like TAD and Psvane.
 
Whatever became of the 300Bs used in the trans-Atlantic cable? Weren't they used every few hundred feet to prevent loss?
 
I run those in my 300b set amp for a couple years. They spunded good but the KRs blew them away. Mkre clarity, grunt, detail. For what i sold them for i bought the KRs and had half left.
 
damacman said:
Whatever became of the 300Bs used in the trans-Atlantic cable? Weren't they used every few hundred feet to prevent loss?
Click to expand...

300Bs as repeater amps in a submarine cable??? LOL.

The tubes intended for repeater service were very specific to that app and were designed with features that resulted in super long life because they weren’t accessible for replacement. Read someplace that projected life of these tubes was ~100,000 hrs and that multiple filaments were employed in parallel at increasing voltage ratings. When lowest voltage filament wore out, the plan was to increase filament supply voltage to point where low voltage filament burned out and next higher voltage filament would take over. Ingenious even if not true
 
http://lampes-et-tubes.info/sp/sp056.php?l=f

sp056a.jpg
 
Pio1980 said:
Rumour had it that back in the day, WE could tool up to provide a replacement on order for any tube they ever made.
Click to expand...

I do find that rumor somewhat credible as right up to the '81 breakup they were still maintaining legacy equipment. In some cases early gear was left in phone exchanges long after better was available. I used to hunt down ex AT&T lineman, AKA telephone pioneers. Many were packrats and worked for AT&T from the early days. From one I bought a 101D tennis ball tube that had been in continuous operation at a telephone relay for least 50 years when he took it out during an upgrade. If AT&T did not have a tube in stores when a failure occurred it might have been easier to build up a new one than to refit new gear at the site.

WAG MODE: OFF
 
soundmotor said:
I used to hunt down ex AT&T lineman, AKA telephone pioneers. Many were packrats and worked for AT&T from the early days. From one I bought a 101D tennis ball tube that had been in continuous operation at a telephone relay for least 50 years when he took it out during an upgrade.
Click to expand...


I found a few interesting bits and pieces of WE at estate sales 15-20 years ago; long retired linemen and engineers. One had saved a handful of 300B bases - and one 300A - glass and guts removed. Really the only thing usable were some large glass light jewels.
 
Pio1980 said:
I had a few of these, this one remains. A 205D
View attachment 1096723
Click to expand...

These are way in the rearview mirror too. I hung onto the powers a long time thinking I'd use them but fell into a pile of 1276s which was the later replacement for the 205D.

The top 3 right are 205Ds, the left box though was marked VT-2 and sealed. I'd guess it a post-WW1 replacement for Signal Corp gear. The others ones are 262As.

YF0GrNx.jpg
 
bean_counter said:

I found a few interesting bits and pieces of WE at estate sales 15-20 years ago; long retired linemen and engineers. One had saved a handful of 300B bases - and one 300A - glass and guts removed. Really the only thing usable were some large glass light jewels.
Click to expand...

I kept the 101D but the only other thing is an AT&T Telephone Pioneers paperweight given to the early lineman at some point. It's MIA right now but looks like this one -

murNjzsIQlt1ZNisMVBkbLA.jpg


/way ot
 
Last edited:
My late father-in-law was a Telephone Pioneer (and very proud of it, too). He worked his way from being a lineman in his teens (i.e., in the late 1920s!) to retire as a VP at AT&T in the 1970s.
He didn't have much cool paraphernalia, though. No tubes, at any rate.
 
soundmotor said:
These are way in the rearview mirror too. I hung onto the powers a long time thinking I'd use them but fell into a pile of 1276s which was the later replacement for the 205D.

The top 3 right are 205Ds, the left box though was marked VT-2 and sealed. I'd guess it a post-WW1 replacement for Signal Corp gear. The others ones are 262As.

YF0GrNx.jpg
Click to expand...
Nice collection!
I also have a 215A and three VT-1 in an SCR-59.
 
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