Electronics at Work - 1943 (Complete) 

Tubes were used in TV's well into the '70s,although in radios they were pretty much gone by the late 60's. Tube manufacturing was well established in this country to the point where many were still in production into the 80's.Shame they're gone,they were interesting and fun to learn about.

though this video is old, it is tremendously comprehensive to me. thanks to the uploader.

I'm only 16, and I believe that I'm one in a handful of kids in my generation that know what Vacuum tubes are. I have a big plastic bin full of those things. Also, I'm a radio hobbyist. I can use those amplifier tubes to amp up my Cb transceivers. I'm not your typical teenager. :)

What an amazing film! Thanks so much for posting this.

I remember vacuum tube testers at the grocery store when I was a kid in the early 70's too

Vacuum tubes are still made and used in high end electronics.

Yes! I have been looking for these kind of educational videos on vacuum tubes from the 30's and 40's era! Thankyou for posting this!

Thats fightn talk mister ;) If you look at the basic device, the log transfer fn of a BJT makes a comb of harmonics,whilst the ~v^2 law of the triiode simply makes some 2nd and 3rd harmonic - inherently more linear Also, the dist spectrum increases nice and gradual, which guitarists like a lot. A silicon amp @

R.I.P CRT :-( Thank you fore uploading.

this was sooo cool thanks for uploading !!!

Thanks for posting this!

Only 4 years later the semiconductor transistor was invented and these magic tubes were consigned to the scrap bin in all but the most extreme power applications

This video is a great piece of history. It reminds us that the US did once manufacture things.

Very cool video! Thanks for sharing that!

and now we appreciate how good tubes are in music amplification, you can buy even iphones docking stations builded with tubes. the sound quality that comes from tube amps is outstanding, and it never be copied by transistors.

What an awesome watch .Thanks

Thanks for sharing

Very educational thanks for uploading ^^

First battery provide current, second battery used to heat catode, and then it began emit electrons. Second battery used to "open" tube diode. Sorry for my bad english :)

Very educational!

great video

Thank You

The vacuum tube was still being used in radio and television receivers well into the 1960's, 20 years after the transistor was invented. And the CRT, another vacuum tube, wes used in televisions until they were replaces many years later.

Tubes still SOUND awesome in alot of audio gear as well.

Great video! I love Westinghouse stuff.. :)

nice video !

The cathode to anode current is provided by a high voltage battery (B supply). However, for the tube to conduct, the cathode must be hot and so a second, low voltage battery (A supply) is required to heat the cathode. In more advanced circuits, a negative supply (C supply) is provided to bias the grid negatively.

Consider the year it was made: 1943. What was happening then? World War II. It was a presence in nearly every media presentation. If you doubt this just check out any cartoon from that era. It's unavoidable.

15:52 "scanning the soundtrack of the talking motion picture film you are listening to right now." How did he know i couldn't afford a computer?

Watching this, I was surprised to see that electronic control of motor speed and of welding equipment were technologies that were used industrially in the WWII era. I had been under the mistaken impression that electromechanical-based controls (based around relays or contactors) were all that was available then.

Well yeah, the clues in the classical name 'Thermionic Valve' - eg the cathode (eg the glowing filamant) has gotta get good and hot before the electrons start moving - so this is usually done by a seperate 'A' or 'LT' power source, as opposed to the main 'B' or 'work' circuit... traditionally the A circuit is a convenient low voltage, and the main ('B' aka 'HT') voltage can be pretty high, up to thousands of volts...

How far we have come...

240p is so 1943...

Tube amps sound better to some, not because of the tubes but because of the magnetics - mostly because of the final output transformer. And here's why: Solid state is precise, for example if you apply a signal to a FET amp then suddenly switch the signal off the output instantly switches off. Apply the same signal to a tube amp then suddenly switch the signal off the energy stored in the output transformer delivers to the speaker slower.

I’m surprised nobody’s bringing up the fact that this was produced by Famous Studios, the same company that did those Casper and Popeye cartoons in the 1940s and 50s.

You can't beat the sound from tube digital is sterile in comparison,it dose not have the harmonics simple as that .Tubes for my always .Great post thank you

Hey, I just downloaded this from Archive.org (wanted higher quality) thought it was AMAZING! It kind of ruined tube tech for me, prior to watching I figured they might operate off magic. Now, I realize it was just science... really really cool science. As an organist, many of the electronic instruments I use use tube technology in amplification as well as tone generation.

my dad was a vacuum tube during the war, he received the purple anode medal . he fell on some enemy microwave transmissions and blew his suppressor grid off. but he saved three triodes in the process .

yes, thats normal, the person being exposed to the x-ray beam was the doctor (him being the one watching the fluoroscope).

you need LT low tension volts to light the heater the thing that glows. you need HT high tension volts to give to the anode. thats why you need 2 batteries. jeff . radio ham over in the uk ..

I love valves.

@17:42, the nurse did not wear any x-ray protection gear, is that normal?

Sounds like someone had some blown tubes when they recorded this.

why 2 battery power sources, can anyone explain?

Are you sure? I thought it was in 1948 at Bell Labs in 5 years.

@JeffTele i understand that and i'm aware of it. But the fact that there is a cause/explanation doesn't necessarily make me feel comfortable with that.

Now THATS not a story you hear every day ... (Saluting)

Not to mention guitar and bass amps.

I must be the only person still using CRT's.

I'm seeing only a green back ground with sound..

R.I.P TESLA

I was about to saying that only tubes can generate radiation, then i remembered that semiconductors can generate lasers, laser are way more cool than xrays.

Är det jordens enda film som inte är ogillad!? Is this the onley movie in the world with no dislikes??? 227 vs. 0 !! Vacumtubes transistors 1-0

oops everybody else has explained that too (Note to self:always look before posting...)

The idea that tubes sound better is a common misconception. The advantage of vacuum tubes is that they have a "nicer" sounding distortion, so some people like them in instrument pre-amps (even this effect is possible with certain transistors). Using a tube in a power amp is just pointless. Tube amps only sound better to the person who just sunk a small fortune on them :)

:) How its made/Made in America 1943 edition.

Wonderhul....

I'm surprised they didn't name them "vacuumatrons".

Sharper image air purifier!!

Well it DID 30-40 years - the thing was just a lab curiousity in '47, 'til Regency & Sony started making little radios with them - not until the late 60's did HiFi power amps get transistorised - radio n TV transmitters a lot later .. And of course, now thanks to guitarists, audiophiles, and the former Soviet union keeping the technology glowing, ahem, growing... (Dont trust any electronic device that doesnt light up - at SOME part of the EM spectrum ;)

As he pointed out, a 'TUBE' acts as switch of various types.. In fact a TUBE will easily allow an uncontrolled flow in ANY direction..electrons , gases or fluids. (Sewage if you must!) That is why the English name is VALVE and not TUBE. It CONTROLS the electron flow in exactly the manner described so well in the video. Remember, ex colonial cousins.. a TUBE lets anything through in both directions but to stop it and start it,, control the quantity and especially the direction, you need a VALVE. However, I do agree with American Aluminum as opposed to Aluminium but that is a whole different story. Or as some you say "A whole nother story!" I gotta admit that because of my many recent exchanges with guys in the Land Of The Free, I'm starting to say (to my shame) tube instead of valve, B+ instead of HT and Plate instead of Anode. It must be admitted that the gentleman in the video DOES say "anode" and never Plate. Oddly 'cathode' never seems to have gained an alternative American name like Anode/Plate. God Bless America and in particular the G.I. and the Lease/Lend agreement. Some of you younger guys may need to look that up. It ain't recent. Good wishes from grateful Olde Englande (Over Here... The Yanks are coming.. "Got any gum, chum?) "We won't be back 'till it's over, over there!" G3NBY

they do like to plug their name! lol

politrics

that't like 25 years before the trip to the moon, of course the technology was good enough

and then came the real audio lover and kicked the transistor into the grafyard and tubes came back as fast as they fanished

sorry

nice vid.. but.. so much war obsession... : /

lol www.njarc.org when i saw i it i thouht wtf?

Audio and transmitting tubes are still used today.......The money stopped because of military and industrial applicaitons, therefore, the govt. money stopped to operate. Now we have shit tubes being made today for audio. :(

i tryed to troll him becaus he was evile

Well, duh! Anyone serious about electronics knows about the superiority of tube sound vs transistors. You just don't need to be so smug about it.