Author Topic: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?  (Read 4792 times)

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Offline maconaTopic starter

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #25 on: July 13, 2021, 04:32:49 am »
Couple pics of the base. The base has spacers to keep it centered in a chimney or something probably to keep air flowing over the end.

Untitled by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr

Untitled by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr
 

Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #26 on: July 13, 2021, 05:46:47 am »
Be mindful that removing the wax may cause a leak if the tube has not already vented.

I don't think those bottom spacers are for a chimney, think they are just clips for mounting into the device in general, along with the weird ring around the middle which is also a contact.

You say the anode is hollow? Show us down the end of the anode, I have a bit of a theory.
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Offline maconaTopic starter

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #27 on: July 13, 2021, 06:19:16 am »
Im not touching it. Its not worth it.

Pic down the "anode" it goes almost all the way to the other end. My guess there was a pipe pumping water down the center of it to keep it cool.

Untitled by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr
 

Offline Bud

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #28 on: July 13, 2021, 07:00:17 am »
Guess Glasslinger ftom Youtube would know.
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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #29 on: July 13, 2021, 07:58:05 am »
I don't think that's for water cooling, a single pipe does not allow circulation, unless there was a coil/loop of smaller pipe inside a sleeve.

My theory is the anode is an emittor/beam former, either for RF or possibly even x-rays. A grounded cooling jacket was likely connected to the ring, the HV negative connected by screw terminal to the sideways stud on the base, and a ring clip connected to the anode for HV +. The bottom of that cavity would be a transparent window for RF/x-ray (yes, there are end firing x-ray tubes, but I have only found diagrams not photos, but basically they seem to use reflected/deflected electrons). Certain x-ray tubes also have odd appendages like that with other electrodes inside (not sure what for).
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Offline gbaddeley

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #30 on: July 13, 2021, 10:41:38 am »
I’m leaning towards a high current switch at a few KV, but the trigger mechanism is not obvious.

Possibly had a low pressure gas, possibly partially ionised by the side tube / filament arrangement. Similar to a Krytron?

A smaller diameter ceramic tube could be placed down the anode tube, to do circulated water cooling, but this device does not seem to be massively high power dissipation (multi KW continuous).
« Last Edit: July 13, 2021, 10:56:16 am by gbaddeley »
Glenn
 

Offline LaserSteve

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #31 on: July 13, 2021, 11:25:19 am »
At the time this was in use, a hollow anode would be used for vapor phase,, ie steam cooling or oil immersion cooling. DI water was not so easy to make back then.

I've seen the remains of cooling pools  at some very old transmitter sites.

If the anode has a low Z window at its bottom , ie copper, it might be X-ray.  Copper was hated as a low Z material.  its better know for use in X-ray crystallography where its modestly high Z is useful due to spectral shaping. There is what looks like a Cadmium Silver or Tig weleded braze line half way down the anode where it reduces in diameter.  Crystallography/ x-ray diffraction is a legit College use of X-rays.  I just can't see a hollow anode tube being efficient or easy to collimate.


Steve
« Last Edit: July 13, 2021, 11:49:43 am by LaserSteve »
"When in doubt, check the Byte order of the Communications Protocol, By Hand, On an Oscilloscope"

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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #32 on: July 13, 2021, 04:12:38 pm »
A gas fill would be easy to detect, does OP have a plasma globe or any such HV source to see if something ionizes? You wouldn't see much, so darken the room.
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Offline maconaTopic starter

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #33 on: July 13, 2021, 06:03:08 pm »

Possibly had a low pressure gas, possibly partially ionised by the side tube / filament arrangement. Similar to a Krytron?


Nah, the side piece is a TSP. They used them on a lot of their other pieces they made like this one:

Untitled by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr

Untitled by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr
 

Offline dmills

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #34 on: July 13, 2021, 07:10:31 pm »
Flow things are common in gas lasers, where the main beam current acts as an ion pump and they need to provide a gas return path that is long enough to prevent the silly thing ionising that path instead of the main one (It also provides time for triplet quenching).

I was thinking xray generator, but one big vacuum diode looks a lot like another.

 

Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #35 on: July 13, 2021, 07:52:47 pm »
A Crookes X-Ray tube?
Found this image in Wikipedia.

 

Online Gyro

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #36 on: July 13, 2021, 08:10:06 pm »
A Crookes X-Ray tube?
Found this image in Wikipedia.

(Attachment Link)

Ah, in the Crookes tube the filament was wrapped around a bit of Asbestos. It's purpose was to liberate a bit of gas so that the vacuum didn't become so hard, due to adsorbtion in the electrodes, for it to conduct that it stopped conducting. Being a cold cathode tube, it needed some gas ions kicking about in order to work at an achievable voltage.

P.S. Some early versions actually had a protruding sealed end metal tube (or the glass itself) that you could warm occasionally with a flame instead of a filament. A bit more risky! Too much gas was as bad (worse?) as too little in terms of X-ray production.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2021, 09:49:47 pm by Gyro »
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Offline jmelson

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #37 on: July 14, 2021, 02:05:33 am »
Oh, I realize that, my lathe is from that time period. But there are just parts here that scream production pieces to me. Plus this is a very small school, even smaller back then and I have seen a lot of their other glasswork and brought some of it home and non if it is anything like this.

Sent a message over to radiomuseum, we will see if they respond. Crossing my fingers.

You can also try this guy. He claims to have a collection of more than 4000 lamps and tubes. In fact I found a tube that is very similar in shape to yours, i.e., it has two opposite electrodes, two glass bulbs, and a middle ring.



According to its datasheet, it is used to "decouple the receiver from a common transmitting and receiving antenna during a period of transmission".
That would be called  a "T/R" tube, usually gas-filled, used in old radar sets, to protect the mixer diode in the reciever from the transmit pulse.

Jon
 

Offline maconaTopic starter

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #38 on: July 14, 2021, 03:18:31 am »
I think at this point we can safely say we will never know what the tube is for. Thats fine with me since I had no plans to use it, Im just going to make an acrylic stand for it.
 

Offline bdunham7

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #39 on: July 14, 2021, 03:22:44 am »
If it is modified or one-off, nobody is likely to recognize it for sure.  You would have to disassemble it and probably examine that lower structure to have any sort of idea.
A 3.5 digit 4.5 digit 5 digit 5.5 digit 6.5 digit 7.5 digit DMM is good enough for most people.
 

Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #40 on: July 14, 2021, 05:28:41 am »
Or you could...give some juice and see what happens. This thing looks beefy enough it would be hard to hurt it.
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline bsfeechannel

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #41 on: July 14, 2021, 04:00:29 pm »
I think at this point we can safely say we will never know what the tube is for. Thats fine with me since I had no plans to use it, Im just going to make an acrylic stand for it.

Better leave that way. We'll all regret if we later discover that this thing is actually a coffee maker.
 

Offline LaserSteve

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #42 on: July 14, 2021, 05:32:27 pm »
Have to x-ray the base.  Big X-ray through. 

Steve
"When in doubt, check the Byte order of the Communications Protocol, By Hand, On an Oscilloscope"

Quote from a co-inventor of the PLC, whom i had the honor of working with recently.
 

Offline eti

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Re: Massive old vacuum tube, anyone know what it is?
« Reply #43 on: July 16, 2021, 11:55:54 pm »
See if you can get hold of "PhotonicInduction" via YouTube/email - he will know if anyone does!
 


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