• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

My tubes are bigger than yours

There is a pic that I've seen a BUNCH of times thru the years of a couple of VERY early CRTs-from C. 1937 being held up by a woman holding on to the bases of them. She is smiling, but to me, does NOT look happy, the 2 CRTs look as if they could crash into each other, & create a REAL Melluva Hess. They also DON'T look like CRTs we're used to, they look impossibly weak & fragile. Maybe that's why Miss Stock Photo Gal ain't too happy holding them up... figuring they might go "Ker-POP!" & she'd get cut to shreds..
 
Here is some bigger tube stuff I play with.
My KR amp with their in house built triodes 842VHD, also a super rectifier that runs big mercury rectifiers 872A, another super rectifier than runs 211's, 845's, mercury rectifiers like the other.

Also threw in a pic of the tubes to compare the size, from left to right..KT88, 300b, 842VHD, 845, 211, 872A
big tubes 005.JPG tube compare 002.JPG tube compare 001.JPG big tubes 003.JPG tube compare 005.JPG
 
Brice said:
None. You need ten's of thousand's volts to get dangerous.
We cruise < 1 KV in audio...
Click to expand...

I agree completely. To make x-rays that can penetrate the glass envelope, you need high voltage (>> 1000 eV) driving electrons into high-Z materials where "Z" is the elemental atomic number. Tungsten is a common target in commercial x-ray tubes as Z=74 (out of 92) and it is has a high melting point.

I tried to build an x-ray tube in middle school using a neon sign transformer and a salvaged tube. Thankfully, it didn't work.
 
Sandy G said:
There is a pic that I've seen a BUNCH of times thru the years of a couple of VERY early CRTs-from C. 1937 being held up by a woman holding on to the bases of them. She is smiling, but to me, does NOT look happy, the 2 CRTs look as if they could crash into each other, & create a REAL Melluva Hess. They also DON'T look like CRTs we're used to, they look impossibly weak & fragile. Maybe that's why Miss Stock Photo Gal ain't too happy holding them up... figuring they might go "Ker-POP!" & she'd get cut to shreds..
Click to expand...
Not 1937, and she's not holding the "tube" directly, but I do like this one. :D
If1hJ-Pq3q9lzsGR4zVIdDy8amSIj4yL8UR65s672Mkj5628yjp8lw447hNZd1G4g84CFn5yX5Az6fSi0BoxcD8hOFP57_LYYJHsclqx7TQz5GY74UWiARxAUvF0W74VCC7yYAIzUgc=w1920-h1080


She looks quite happy and handles that "knob" like a pro:
old-tv-set.jpg

1938?: She looks a bit excited "what can I do with this little thing"?
1938-A-woman-demonstratin-004.jpg
 
Naw. The gal I was talkin' about was demonstrating a couple of Dumont sets from 1937-14 & 20 inchers. She had on a dark dress & had dark hair. Apparently, those were REALLY big CRTs for then, I don't think even RCA made ones as big then. She was what we might term as "Pleasantly Ugly"..Dumont was a leader in TV before there really was TV. They even had a network to compete w/CBS, ABC, NBC. But they really couldn't compete w/the Big Boys, & I think their whole schmear collapsed by about 1956.DuMont also had a 30" TV-the Royal Sovereign after the war, that was the biggest CRT made then. Like so many things that "Push the edge", the CRTs had rather short lives & konked out quickly. Quite a few of the sets that were sold went to bars & they were pushed heavily which made their lives ever shorter. Most people today think TV is strictly a postwar development, but it really had its start a good 10 years- and even more-before that...
 
whoaru99 said:
Maybe I'm missing something in the comment, but in actual use it would be water-cooled.
Click to expand...

Yep. Transmitters using these type tubes, had very elaborate and large water cooling systems, including cooling ponds!

Sandy G said:
I THINK this has come up here on AK a time or 2 before..The WLW transmitter/tubes in Cincy back in the 1930s/40s ? THEY were pretty impressive, too. And don't forget the "Border Blaster" radio stations that were WLW's "Competition".. A FASCINATING time in American history..
Click to expand...

The tube shown there, was, AFAIK, the Western Electric 320A- of which, EIGHT of them were used in the most famous "border blaster" of all (XERA), owned by the infamous Dr. Brinkley (the "King of the Quacks"). It had one of the very first practical high-efficiency Doherty amplifiers (designed by Jim Weldon- who would become the founder of Continental Electronics, and inspected by Doherty himself), and could do an effective radiated power, including its directional antenna array, of close to a MEGAWATT.

That same principle- the Doherty amplifier- is what pretty much every cell phone, wireless network router and satellite transmitter uses now. A bunch of amp stages stacked- so that when the first one reaches max amplitude- the next one turns on, and when it runs out of headroom, the third one turns on, and so on, and so on, to reach whatever output power needed by the signal at that point. If one stage isn't needed- it simply turns off- drawing no power. That's how something as small as a cell phone, can "reach out and touch someone" the way that it does, and still have a battery life of more than a few minutes...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Last edited:
mhardy6647 said:
Aww, man, Adam -- you don't have the 2kW Heathkit linear, too? I am shocked. Shocked.

View attachment 1813627
Click to expand...
Not yet, anyway. I still have yet to put my SB-200 to 'good' use, since I'm not sure I'll be able to use it without installing a separate circuit, and I'm sure I'd need one for a SB-220. However, when I do set up my SB-200, it should go nicely with my SB-102 transceiver:
sb102_front2.jpg
 
The Russian GM100 tubes used by VAT Audio in their flagship single ended mono blocks are the biggest and most powerful triodes i've seen. The compliment of the GM100 triode and 6N6P-IR driver tube are good for 170 Watts @ 1 kHz. Not bad from just two tubes!

1713026980698.jpeg
1713027101147.jpeg
 
^Lots of "baby" tubes here ;)

Meet the RCA 5831 500KW Super Power Beam Triode
Water cooled. 135lbs. ~39"
Screenshot_20240413-123654_Chrome.jpg

www.rfcafe.com

New 500 K.W. Super-Power Beam Triode, May 1950 Radio News

If there is or ever has been a solid state device that required as much painstaking, precise, manual assembly required as some of the magnificent vacuum tubes developed over the years, I don't know of it
www.rfcafe.com www.rfcafe.com

They used these to make this:
www.rfcafe.com

World's Most Powerful Radio Transmitter, February 1954 Radio and Television News

Having grown up just a few miles from the U.S. Navy's VLF transmitter station (NNS) in Annapolis, Maryland
www.rfcafe.com www.rfcafe.com
 
index.php

OnTheBlitz said:
^Lots of "baby" tubes here ;)

Meet the RCA 5831 500KW Super Power Beam Triode
Water cooled. 135lbs. ~39"


www.rfcafe.com

New 500 K.W. Super-Power Beam Triode, May 1950 Radio News

If there is or ever has been a solid state device that required as much painstaking, precise, manual assembly required as some of the magnificent vacuum tubes developed over the years, I don't know of it
www.rfcafe.com www.rfcafe.com

They used these to make this:
www.rfcafe.com

World's Most Powerful Radio Transmitter, February 1954 Radio and Television News

Having grown up just a few miles from the U.S. Navy's VLF transmitter station (NNS) in Annapolis, Maryland
www.rfcafe.com www.rfcafe.com
Click to expand...
The guy looks like Dr Frankenstein's brother. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom