Most Important Invention/Discovery

I tend to think they were soldered.

atferrari said:

What is actually 6 and 10 mm long? Diameter seems to be 10.

If no sockets, how were they assembled? Soldered straight to the PCB?

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Hy atferrari,

Here is a data sheet with the dimensions for a similar valve (tube). The envelope cross section is not round but oval.

http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/201/5/512AX.pdf



The cross section of some sub miniature valves with glass envelopes were round though.


Yes, the leads were soldered to tag strips- what are PCBs

For airborne equipment, the body of the valves were either secured by a metal clip or for glass enveloped valves by s metal sheath that covered the length of the valve, presumably for screening and heat sinking. Not sub miniature valves but showing the type of valve sheath/clips and the type on construction before PCBs:



spec

http://www.effectrode.com/signal-tubes/subminiature-tubes/

nsaspook said:

Vacuum tube were used in some digital devices designed in the 50's until the 1990's. One type of device was the KW(RT)-37. The decoding unit used 500 subminiature vacuum tubes (three for each flip-flop.) in its digital logic circuits. I actually repaired a few Navy operational units in the early 80's. It was pretty amazing seeing a digital fibonacci series generator made from 1950's tube circuits.
http://qa.geeksforgeeks.org/1389/fibonacci-encryption-and-decryption
**broken link removed**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KW-37
http://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_6088.html

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Very interesting post nsaspook. A lot of the Royal Air Force airborne equipment of the 1950s to 1980s used sub miniature valves, especially if it was US sourced. The techies were not too keen on soldered in valves because it made servicing difficult.

spec

Some info about the ultimate development of the valve (tube):
https://spectrum.ieee.org/semicondu...he-vacuum-transistor-a-device-made-of-nothing
spec

This is a KWR-37 unclassified VV card.
tubes
3 JAN6088
6 JAN6418

To the best of my knowledge the internals and schematics of this device are still classified so what little details I still remember about it have to stay under wraps but it was in service for so long simply because it worked under the most adverse conditions possible and was effectively nuclear EMP hardened because launch code EAM messages were sent on this channel.

spec said:

Very interesting post nsaspook. A lot of the Royal Air Force airborne equipment of the 1950s to 1980s used sub miniature valves, especially if it was US sourced. The techies were not too keen on soldered in valves because it made servicing difficult.

spec

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Most problems could be fixed with a good old fashioned rubber mallet tap to the case.

It's been a very long time since I saw a top hat style diode....... Thanks nsaspook.

Looks like three transistors snuck on to the board.....

When PCBs first came out the quality was awful. Ten-to-one, if you removed a component the trace would lift. On the tag strip layouts changing a component was a dream especially valves which just plugged in. But one problem was that if you removed any wires you could forget where they came from. Also there was no unified layout scheme so accessibility was a nightmare. The first rationalised equipment I saw was American TACAN. It was streets ahead of anything else and that applied to the manuals too.

spec

JoeJester said:

It's been a very long time since I saw a top hat style diode....... Thanks nsaspook.

Looks like three transistors snuck on to the board.....

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My online source for the card says:
2 1N1518 zener type ref diode
1 2N43 One of the first junction transistors http://semiconductormuseum.com/PhotoGallery/PhotoGallery_2N43.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2N107
2 2N534

The Thermos because it keeps hot stuff hot and clod stuff cold. How does it know the difference?

Seriously, born and raised in NY close to NYC as a child I was ever present at the 1963-1964 Worlds Fair which was literally a bicycle ride away. The fair offered many things for the young mind including a "picture phone" from AT&T but a real crowd pleaser was the GE (General Electric) Carousel of Progress which marked the progress of electricity. Following the World's Fair the entire exhibit was moved to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. It's not just electricity but what we did with it over the decades. Last I saw the exhibit they had to add more decades to it. Apparently it also exist in Disney World in Florida.

Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (entire show - part 1 of 2) - Magic Kingdom - Walt Disney World

Ron

I think it is paper & writing.
I also think that war always come up with may new discovery and invention . If there is no war in human history, now we still don't have even bicycle .
But remember: I don't have warlike temper.

Nikolai Petrenko said:

I think it is paper & writing.
I also think that war always come up with may new discovery and invention . If there is no war in human history, now we still don't have even bicycle .
But remember: I don't have warlike temper.

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Yes, paper and writing are fundamental to civilization and before that language.

But there is still one thing more far reaching and fundamental than all of the important things that have been suggested so far.

spec

What about labour.

My father died at early age (39 when I was about 9) because his two kidneys were badly infected (and stopped functioning) and there was no live-organ transplantation at that time (1959).
In the 70's, I heard on TV a professional surgeon (from America) saying that all doctors in the world like him have agreed to stop their transplant operations since they all end up to the death of their patients due to the immunity system of their body that sees the good cells of the new transplanted organ as intruders. And he added that such operations will be resumed only when the medical research centers will find out how to control the natural immunity system of the human body.
Many years later (I don't recall how many exactly), I heard that these operations became available with a similar risk that all other conventional medical ones have.
Sorry, the rest of the story is a taboo (internationally speaking)... but who has ears will hear... I mean he will understand what I am talking about

Kerim said:

My father died at early age (39 when I was about 9) because his two kidneys were badly infected (and stopped functioning) and there was no live-organ transplantation at that time (1959).
In the 70's, I heard on TV a professional surgeon (from America) saying that all doctors in the world like him have agreed to stop their transplant operations since they all end up to the death of their patients due to the immunity system of their body that sees the good cells of the new transplanted organ as intruders. And he added that such operations will be resumed only when the medical research centers will find out how to control the natural immunity system of the human body.
Many years later (I don't recall how many exactly), I heard that these operations became available with a similar risk that all other conventional medical ones have.
Sorry, the rest of the story is a taboo (internationally speaking)... but who has ears will hear... I mean he will understand what I am talking about

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The loss of your father is sad and has obviously affected you badly.

But I'm not sure what you are talking about at the end of your post. Most of us on ETO speak directly. I suspect that shielding yourself behind the word 'taboo' you are hiding a non logical view- sorry. This is in complete contrast to you technical posts on ETO which are accurate, concise and complete.

spec

Kerim said:

My father died at early age (39 when I was about 9) because his two kidneys were badly infected (and stopped functioning) and there was no live-organ transplantation at that time (1959).

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Yes transplatnations of organs is a great achivevemnt, my grandmother curently lives with a transplanted heart for 25 years and 10 years with a transplanted kidney and she´s doing great.

Nikolai Petrenko said:

What about labour.

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The old world was built by labor, normally enforced, but that is the power of the machine. What was the lubrication.

spec

spec said:

What was the lubrication.

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My bad brain think about art.

Nikolai Petrenko said:

My bad brain think about art.

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Getting colder- if all the art in the world vanished it would make no material difference.

spec

Sorry, spec, for not being clear anytime I use the word "Taboo".
I mention this word when things start to be related of what is known as politics and/or formal religions.

Even my logical analyses about the important events in the world (and their stories as they are spread worldwide) don't aim any specific system (political or religious), I am afraid there will be always someone here who will like to play the good guy/hero and accuse me of breaking the rules of the "International Society"; the modern god that no one saw though even Atheists are proud following its instructions and regulations

Therefore, if the impossibility might happen and I will meet anyone here face to face someday, hence far from the eyes of the International Society and its rules , we will certainly have a non-limited conversation and without the need to convince each other about anything.

The only thing I can do here is to let you have just an idea of what a person outside your realm may think and know assuming most members here don't mind trusting, even a bit, a person not approved by the International Society

Sorry for repeating here the notion of the "International Society". For many decades, I hear of it almost daily, as all here likely do, from all sorts of people (in all sides/camps on earth) who are 'allowed' addressing millions on TV and/or internet. But I still don't know the region in which it is located and the ones who are blessed by 'it' to transfer us... day after day... its "will".