Re: [Harp-L]tube handling



You'd think vacuum tubes would be really fragile, but they aren't. If somebody detonated a nuke in the atmosphere or if we had a solar storm like the one in the 1850s that caught the telegraphs on fire all across the U.S., the only radios that would still work would be ones like this nine-tube Heathkit International Broadcast receiver that sits by my bedside. They're the cockroaches of electronics. Of course, all the solid-state stations would be knocked out and there wouldn't be much to listen to. My point is, they are pretty tough... I went through the Heathkit around Christmas and replaced around four tubes that tested weak - but were still working - the rest of them have been in that radio for more than 40 years and that radio runs all night, every night, because I fall asleep listening to it. I love vacuum tubes. I love the way they hum, I love the way they sound, love the way they look and even like the way they smell when a bunch of them get
 warmed up.
Halogen bulbs burn hot enough to catch stuff on fire, vacuum tubes get hot enough to maybe give your skin a little a burn, but they don't get that hot and I can't imagine oil hurting the glass. I did a story for Monitoring Times magazine on the radio museum in Huntington recently. They had this huge tube, it was one of the world's biggest vacuum tubes. The curator said they had an option for 50 tubes, but only accepted a donation of one. I asked him why they didn't accept more. He said "because there's 22 pounds of toxic mercury in it!" You would think mercury and mercury vapor would be a lot more damaging to stuff than oil - you could probably dip the tube in battery acid and it would probably be fine as long as you didn't get any acid on the socket.
The inside of a vacuum tube is its own world - the glass is just a fence that keeps the real world out of it. The only way for a glass-related tube failure would be to have a hole in that fence.
  
There is one problem though, with handling old tubes and I don't know if this is true with new ones or not. The paint wears off REALLY EASILY! You can handle a tube, set it down, pick it back up and the ID numbers are GONE! 

David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com


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________________________________
 From: Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Cc: Harp-L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 4:53 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: tube handling
 
Robert asks
Is this true?
"oil on your skin will cause premature failure" [of tubes]

I asked A.J. Folkerts from Marble Amps about this some time ago and he said it's a myth. According to AJ you can handle tubes with clean hands (ketchup or grease from French fries probably won't be too good for them) without any risk of damaging them. Oil on your skin can damage halogen lamps, but not amplifier tubes, sez he.

Steve Baker
www.stevebaker.de
www.european-music-workshops.com
www.harmonica-masters.de


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