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In Reply to: Why did globe shaped tubes die out? posted by andy evans on March 14, 2006 at 15:52:32:
Andy, hi. Making tubes was even more labor intensive early on than it became, and it was always labor intensive. A good example is the Type 50. This RCA design was very labor intensive to manufacture. An examination of the internal structure of the "globe" versions will show how complicated the support structure for the grid and cathode really is. The globe versions also betray the likeness of these early tubes to light bulbs of the day. Manufacturing electric light bulbs and tube manufacture have a lot in common. The Type 50 was an intricate and expensive tube to make, and its price in the marketplace reflected it. One might say that the globe versions of tubes were made that way because the makers didn't know how to make them any other way. It is form following necessity. That these early globe tubes should be perceived as sounding better than their later ST or other versions no doubt would have astonished the early tube makers.Jimmy is right on with his educated guess.
Sound quality of the globe version versus the ST version, when it became possible to make an ST version, was not a factor in the equation. The subtle differences in sound we are aware of today had no part in the process. I am sure the smaller envelope ST was hailed as "progress": smaller, same electrical performance, easier and less expensive to make. Don't forget that electrical sound recording only really started to make a major impact by 1925. The movies got sound quickly over a 2 year period after the sensation caused by Warner Brothers' The Jazz Singer. Tube manufacturers had only recently been able to make a uniform product. Radio sales were exponential fueling the drive for refinements in existing and new tube design.
One must examine tube manufacture in the context of the times in order to understand tube evolution.
Why the audio filamentary triodes were somewhat shunted aside in favor of indirectly heated types including pentodes for audio amplifiers is another facet of what happened. The race for "more power" was on.
The book The Saga of the Vacuum Tube by Gerald Tyne is an excellent way to travel back in history and get a measure of the storms and struggles of the early days. Included: patent wars, perpetual lawsuits over infringement, outlaw tube makers who set up shop where the patent lawyers couldn't find them, and so on.
Also recommended is The Empire of the Air, a Ken Burns documentary on the inter-twining of the lives and fortunes of Edwin Armstrong, Lee DeForest, and General Sarnov
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Follow Ups
- blame it on "progess" (longish-sorry) - elektron 07:56:40 03/15/06 (0)
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