16 Aug
1999
16 Aug
'99
7:20 a.m.
Upon the date 06:40 PM 8/16/99 +0100, Tony Duell said something like:
Other things that are always 'tubes' in the UK :
Photomultipliers
TV camera devices (vidicons, image orthicons, etc)
Geiger-Muller detectors
There's no arguement needed. Recall I used the word "perfected".
We certainly talk about 'counting tubes' when
refering to dekatrons,
trochatrons, etc. Never seen them called 'counting valves'. And CRTs are
certainly 'tubes' over here.
Probably the USA expression "tube" was adopted to differentiate between a
'controlled' valve (diode, triode, tetrode, etc.) and these more recent thermionic emission devices you speak of. But I
would have called a CRT a
Cathode Ray Valve (CRV) because of its function. However, V. Zworykin had
perfected in the USA that device which presents an image on a phosphor
screen mounted on a glass envelope under vacuum which we all call the CRT.
Except you could argue that was a development of work done by Braun
(Germany) which itself came from work done by J. J. Thompson (England).
Incidentally, some old books (American) on radio refer to triodes as
'Audion Bulbs'.
Those must be books dating before, say, 1915 or so. Or written in 1930 by a
then-oldtimer who doesn't like change :)
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/