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O'Neill's Electronic Museum
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Vacuum Tube Museum

Specialty Tubes

TS means the Translation is Suspect

Click on photo for larger picture.
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Müller Geiger counter tube Landistgyr Switzerland: A Müller Geiger counter tube is an evacuated tube, which contains an internal element shaft that upon the impact of a radioactive particle a current impulse is released. It is used to detect radioactivity.
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Philips, 13201 voltage stabilizer: These tubes contained only two electrodes and are gas-filled. If the applied voltage exceeds the highest desired, then they the electrodes ignite the gas and dissipate the surplus voltage.
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RCA, OD3 voltage stabilizer: This tube stabilizes DC at 150 volts.
yel101 Cerberus, Männedorf Switzerland, S90 140 voltage stabilizer: This tube stabilizes at 90 V. The tubes manufactured in Switzerland were well-known for their accuracy.
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Amperite, USA, current stabilizer: The counterpart (to voltage stabilizers) were current stabilizers or "ballast Tubes". They contain a wire of pure iron and are filled with hydrogen gas. (iron hydrogen resistances)
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Amperite, USA, 2HT4 Ballast Tube: They always allow the same current between two voltage limits. Sometimes were not always accurately built. TS
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Loewe, Germany, RA1 Ballast Tube: At the beginning of the tube technology each tube was builtTS (custom?) , since one could not build the heating elements of the tubes accurately at that time.
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Amperite, USA, 1A Ballast Tube: This Ballast Tube keeps 1 amp of current constant.

If one would like to switch an electric circuit on delay, then one lets a bimetallic strip heat up. After a certain time the strip bends and closes the contact. So that the contacts remain clean for a long time, the relay is inserted into a hydrogen atmosphere. Much use for that switch on high voltage mercury vapor electric rectifiers (866), which were destroyed otherwise by the burning away of the contacts.

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Curtis Wright, USA ZQ 25067 thermal relay
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Curtis Wright USA 6.3-6 thermal relay
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STC England VLS 631 thermal relay
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Amperite the USA 115N03D thermal relay: line voltage performance thermal relay. Fixed unit shutdown time.TS
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Thermosen Kalotron 2AS15A thermal relay: Very sensitive and exact thermal relay. Switches off by extension of the heat element. 1
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Cerberus Männedorf Switzerland GR16: Cold-cathode tubes were the world specialty of two Swiss companies. There are gas-filled tubes (diodes) with an ignition electrode. Thyratron. If a voltage arises with minimal current (nanoA) at the ignition electrode, then the tube ignites and allows current through. The ignition condition is indicated optically by shining neon gas. The life span of the Tube is 25,000 hours.
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Eresta Bad Ragaz Switzerland ER1O: Disadvantage is that the tube can be only be switched on. For switching off the anode voltage must be interrupted.
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Cerberus? Unknown
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Cerberus Männedorf Switzerland GR22: Even by brief changes of the glass surface the tube can be catch fire. (bordering on criminality). TS
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These tubes contain several grids one set behind the other placed in numerical order. They are filled with neon gas. When switched on the grid lights up red. In addition minimum current is necessary. The numbers are very clearly visible at a far distance. Number tubes are gladly used in front panel boards by power stations, where a reading at a distance is necessary. Current used is minimal and the life span is very long. Problem: A minimum voltage of approximately. 150 V is necessary, so they are not feasible for portable test equipment.
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1 This tube is actually more of a current sensor than a thermal relay. It's designed to have the plate current vary with the filament temperature, allowing regulation of filament voltage, for instance. These tubes are used this way to regulate the filament voltage in old Tektronix oscilloscopes, with the tube output driving a big amplifier tube than then drives a saturating winding in the filament transformer, closing the feedback loop. The mechanism in the tube is designed to short the plate to the filament if the filament breaks, so if the tube fails, the circuit it is controlling will go to minimum instead of maximum as it would for an open circuit (zero plate current). So it's more of a failsafe mechanism that one intended to operate in normal use. Thanks to JR.
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