[HBR] Tube history/usage summary?

[Shoppa, Tim]

> So here¹s my question ... Is there a recommended book, article series, or
> whatever, that might categorize, classify, group or explain tubes and
> characteristic used in different applications?

Good starts for smaller tubes are:

RCA Receiving Tube Handbook. Different editions span different years. They include cross-refs by application, selection charts, and many tube parameters. For HBR era stuff a postwar book with miniatures is the obvious choice, and reprints of RC-30 (1973) are readily available from Antique Electronic Supply etc. The later you go, the more compactrons and TV-type tubes you see, if this is important to you (depending on your bent it may not be desirable!). Many example schematics.

Radiotron Designers Handbook. Not so much a databook but a encyclopedic book about radio and tube design.

Ternan's books on Radio Engineering are good too.

Some university level textbooks common in the 1950's:
Spangenberg, "Vacuum Tubes"
Seely, "Electron Tube Circuits"
Millman & Seely.
Millman and Taubes.

If you have a good technical library near you, the MIT Radiation Lab series.

A lot of figures and tables you find in the 40's-50's-60's-70's ARRL Handbooks are actually taken from the above books.

Tim.