valve collection

[Andrew Davie]

I'm a bit of a collector, and now that I have my crater lamp tubes in-hand, gee, they're really quite pretty. I was thinking that a small collection of 'interesting' vacuum tubes would actually look kind of neat.

So, old timers what tubes would you recommend for someone who's really only looking for things that look 'pretty'? I'm thinking fairly large tubes, thick pins, and gizmo-widgety looking inside. I don't really know where to start. Perhaps there are some famous ones worth having.

Could anyone recommend some models to look for? Of course I'm not looking for rare and expensive stuff. Anything around $20/valve would be reasonable, if it looked mad-scientisty.

Thanks
A

[Stephen]

I would recommend that you first get a copy of "70 Years of Radio Tubes and Valves" by John W. Stokes. It has wonderful illustrations and descriptions of valves world wide. I have the original 1982 edition and I believe there is a 1997 edition as well.

[Andrew Davie]

So I was browsing eBay, as one does, and I found a bunch of Russian IN-12A nixie tubes for sale. 20 for US$27.50 including delivery. Since I'm mad keen on Russian stuff anyway, I impulse-bought these. I really love the look of these things (see piccy).

I plan to mount them in a 4x5 array (non-functional) and get it framed and put up on the wall alongside my barbed-wire. The barbed-wire is an interesting story; I bought some antique wire when in Texas as a sort of souvenir (about $60 for a big bunch), mounted it myself, and had it framed when I got home.

The guy in the framing store asked if he could put it in the window to show his work. I said "yes, of course" and so it was on display for a couple of weeks, which made me feel pretty good Well, when I went to pick it up he asked me if it was for sale. "No," says I, "well, maybe for a ridiculous amount!". And he asks "what's ridiculous?"... and I say "..................$1250?". And he says "OK, I'll take it. Can you make me another?". So... $2500 for two barbed wire pictures!!

Let's see how a nixie array looks. Of course, I'd absolutely love to have this thing FUNCTIONAL and rattling off digits of pi, on the wall. But I don't have those skills, unfortunately. Static, it will have to be.

[Steve Anderson]

Static, it will have to be.

I'm not sure about 'rattling off the digits of pi', but Nixies are quite easy to drive. I'm still in the process of building two Nixie clocks locked to the GPS system. Pic below shows how more attractive they are allive rather than dead.

Seconds have been added now and I just need to find an attractive case to hide the ugly gubbins just leaving the tubes exposed to the world (After being straightend up).

Thankfully we don't have daylight saving here, so I don't have that headache to contend with.

Steve A.

[Viewmaster]

I'm a bit of a collector, and now that I have my crater lamp tubes in-hand, gee, they're really quite pretty. I was thinking that a small collection of 'interesting' vacuum tubes would actually look kind of neat.

This guy has an enormous collection of valves and asociated electrical tubes etc.. You may get some ideas here....it will certainly blow your mind this site if you browse it for too long!

Nixies a plenty toooo!

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/

Albert.

[Steve Anderson]

Since I'm mad keen on Russian stuff anyway, I impulse-bought these.....

This site has references to Russian tubes amongst others...

http://www.tubecollector.org/

Steve A.

[Klaas Robers]

Andrew, if you think that you can read Dutch as well (not too difficult), you might read how I explain to the students how to drive nixies and make a digital clock of them that automatically changes from winter- into summertime and reverse. He did it again last sunday night.....

The decoders are driven from a microcontroller 80C51. A small receiver listens to the second pulses of DCF 77 transmitter in Germany on 77,5 kHz. That part is not described here. But the decoder and the HV-transistors is still regular stuff.

[Marcus]

My favorite valves is the 1625 http://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_1625.html it is a big, nicely shaped valve and can be used for a whole bunch of applications including 12v on the plate SW regen radios.