Making money from vintage repairs - is it possible?

[Alistair D]

Hi.
NM your prospective customer may just wonder what kind of repairer you are. A doctor or a service engineer!
A Radio with tubes?
A Radio here in the UK, Valves my man  

Should I be looking for a stethoscope to add to my test equipment collection?

Al

[Alan Douglas]

I think "tube" is probably a better term. It was used also in the USA to refer to the whole TV set. I think sometimes TV repairmen used to sometimes use the term "tube" as well.

"TV" was far more common than "tube"  which was a slangy contraction of "picture tube."  Of course "tube" still survives in CRT.

Up to 1920 there was De Forest with his silly "audion" and General Electric's even sillier "pliotron."  "Valve" was out since that was foreign.  One of the most common devices in regular use was Cunningham's Audiotron; of course the name was hopeless but the gadget itself was tubular.  An American Marconi engineer Elmer Bucher wrote a popular book calling them vacuum tubes, and Western Electric's guru van der Bijl did the same for his scholarly text.  That seemed to be a good compromise.
   

[Nowhere-Man]

I think "tube" is probably a better term. It was used also in the USA to refer to the whole TV set. I think sometimes TV repairmen used to sometimes use the term "tube" as well. 

"TV" was far more common than "tube"  which was a slangy contraction of "picture tube."  Of course "tube" still survives in CRT.

Up to 1920 there was De Forest with his silly "audion" and General Electric's even sillier "pliotron."  "Valve" was out since that was foreign.  One of the most common devices in regular use was Cunningham's Audiotron; of course the name was hopeless but the gadget itself was tubular.  An American Marconi engineer Elmer Bucher wrote a popular book calling them vacuum tubes, and Western Electric's guru van der Bijl did the same for his scholarly text.  That seemed to be a good compromise.

I make the distinction between "Toob Radio" and "Chewb" Radio. I imagine real Americans would say, "a toob radio".

It's always useful to do your Google searches 2 ways:

(1) Valve radio HT smoothing cans

(2) Tube radio HT smoothing cans.

Naturally the first search will cough up a load of posts on the main home based sites. The second will give you American sites or articles (JustRadios tends to pop up).

"Hot chassis radios" is always good for some horror stories and danger warnings.

[Nowhere-Man]

Hi.
NM your prospective customer may just wonder what kind of repairer you are. A doctor or a service engineer!
A Radio with tubes?
A Radio here in the UK, Valves my man  

Should I be looking for a stethoscope to add to my test equipment collection?

Al

As I'm quite a big fan of Lost In Space, I couldn't help but notice someone say the robot might have a "faulty tube". I thought that was significant as the episode would have been about 1966. Indeed, "transistor" was used in some other episodes.

[Crackle]

To me the term "valve" is more meaningful as it describes WHAT the thing is, it controls the flow of something, in this case electrons.
In English the term "tube" is often used as an abbreviation when talking of a picture tube or more correctly CRT or Cathode Ray Tube, in say a TV.
If you can keep to the correct accepted English terms it saves confusion.
Apart from that I am a bit of a traditionalist and hate the way that American & Australian slang is eating its way into our language.

Mike

[Murphyv310]

Hi Mike.
Yes I agree, tube means nothing at all, it to me is a bit of pipe! At least a valve has some engineering definition, usually a one way device or something you can vary the flow of, very apt for our thermionic valves!
Personally I think as this forum is UK based, technical descriptions should be done in British English, although if a member is from the US I can understand why he/she would use their nomenclature.
Surely UK based posters can use language and nomenclature that we all use and understand.

[Old Sparky]

I'm not too pedantic about the use of American terminology, although, like most of us in the UK, I am more used to the English wrds, having been interested in electronics for over 50 years. However maybe it should be remembered that 'tube' in this context means a 'Vacuum tube', which explains what the device is, if not how it works. If I ever knew why an Anode is called a 'plate' in The Americas, I've forgotten. Maybe someone will enlighten me. B+ for HT+ is OK as far as it goes, but what is, if it exisits, A+? On the subject of voltage terminology, I recall that 'In Your Workshop' (Radio Constructor many years ago) once had a quiz iwhich Dick asked 'Smithy', or maybe it was the other way round. 'What's High Voltage?' Seemingly it's what is referred to here in UK as 'EHT'!

[Crackle]

EHT is Extremely High Tension, HT is High Tension, LT is Low Tension..
You can substitute the word "volts" for "tension"
I was surprised to learn when I did my C&G Electrical Installations, that "low voltage" included normal domestic 240v mains, whereas 3 phase 512v supplies were thought of as "high voltage"

Mike

[pwdrive]

I believe this forum has a world wide audience.

I use both UK and American terminology, I also use imperial and metric terminology.

Not too hard really.

Lawrence.

[Brianc]

If I ever knew why an Anode is called a 'plate' in The Americas, I've forgotten.  Maybe someone will enlighten me.

In the early valves, the anode was simply a rectangular metal plate in the glass envelope and not shaped in any way - I guess that's why the name "Plate" was coined.
As to the encroachment of American and Australian expressions into out everyday language, I hate it. I also hate the way Halloween with its Trick or Treat craze has developed - WHY?
Too much TV influence with its plethora of bought-in foreign programs is having, in my opinion, a very negative effect on our culture  - bring back the three original channels .
A rare rant from me over.