[sdiy] here's one for all you eBay lovers

[René Schmitz]

Hi List,

J. Larry Hendry wrote:

> Interesting stuff.  I just cannot imagine actually hand making tubes.  Is
> this common place at all amoung tube lovers?

AFAIK there are only a hand full of people doing this.
I know of one here in Germany haveing a nice lab for it. You can see it 
here: (In german)
http://www.jogis-roehrenbude.de/Leserbriefe/Ruediger-Walz-Seite.htm
He mentiones a couple of others including Phil Weingarten.

>>Among other problems here, thoriated filament wire was NOT used in the
> 
> original Audions! It wasn't invented until 1920. Original Audions used
> tantalum wire filaments.

Getting the original materials is quite difficult.

> An interesting fact that probably not too many people on the planet know.
> What's really the market for this kind of tube anyhow?  Are they really that
> sought after?  I find that completely amazing (in an intersting sort of
> way).

THe earliest tubes are really antiques. And needed to keep the early 
receivers operational. Even if you have the original tube, people would 
swap it for a replica in order to not use up the original tube.

Cheers,
  René

-- 
uzs159 at uni-bonn.de
http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzs159