24 Mar
2006
24 Mar
'06
2:53 p.m.
I love the old names for thermionic devices; we've
lost that knack for
I've not heard of half of these...
naming. Any gas-filled thermionic diode is a
phanotron, any vacuum-filled
diode is a kenotron. So an 866 is a phanotron (has mercury), but a 5U4 is
Which reminds me... Didn't one of the Teletypes have a couple of 866s in
the power supply? Anotehr use for mercury in classic computing.
I can't remember. Is the 866 a pure diode, or does it have a trigger
electrode?
a kenotron. A vacuum triode is a pliotron and a gas
triode is a thyratron.
Ya gotta love it!
I guess most of use know 'Rheostat' for a variable resistor. But what
about 'Rheophor' (a conductor, like a length of wire). Or 'Rheotome'
(originally the interupting contact on an induction coil, a mad friend of
mine uses the term for the chopper transistor in an SMPSU).
-tony