Tube Books
Tech's Filing Cabinet Miscellaneous General Electric RCA Tube Tech Semi Tech Audio Radio Components

Scanned books covering tube technology. Unless otherwise noted, these scans were done by John Atwood. Some links go to the Internet Archive. Listed Alphabetically by author.


Champeix 1961 Physics and Techniques of Electron Tubes Vol. 1 - Principles of Vacuum Technique - High-vacuum techniques especially applied to vacuum tubes. Clearly written, with a French perspective.

Electronintorg 1989 Industrial Tubes - Electonintorg was the electronics export company for the USSR. This data book of industrial tubes is a good snapshot of the state of the art in non-confidential Soviet tube technology near the fall of the Soviet Union. Receiving and microwave tubes are not included. The language is both Russian and English, but the tube types are all Cyrillic.

IRE 1962 Standards on Electron Tubes Methods of Testing - Official test procedures for testing all types of electron tubes. 160 pages, only 35 pertain to receiving tubes.

JETEC 1955 Basing Diagrams - Document 2A from the JETEC (Joint Electron Tube Engineering Council), a part of RETMA. These organizations later became JEDEC and the EIA. A list of tube bases "for receiving, allied receiving, cathode ray, and small industrial tubes." Includes pin-out connections for these tubes.

Katznelson & Larionov 1981 Receiving Tubes - This is a Soviet tube manual for receiving tubes, circa 1981. Just like the RCA tube manual, there is a considerable amount of application information before the data listings. The book is in Russian. To quickly find a tube's data, use the index near the back. 457 pages.

Kohl 1960 Materials and Techniques for Electron Tubes - Detailed description of the materials and construction techniques for electron tubes. Update of earlier 1951 book. Kohl worked for Sylvania, but was also a lecturer at Stanford and a consultant for the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). 657 pages.

RCA 1940 Vacuum Tube Design - From the preface: "The material comprising the twenty-six lectures contained in this book formed the basis of a course on vacuum-tube design given by RCA engineers for company employees during the winter of 1937 and spring of 1938. The lectures were intended to provide a review of the basic principles underlying the design and manufacture of vacuum tubes." This was an in-house, proprietary book not released to the public. This book was lent to me for scanning by Ludwell Sibley. 267 pages.

RCA 1962 Electron Tube Design - From the forward: "The fifty-three articles in this book were written by RCA engineers and scientists to acquaint RCA tube engineers, particularly those of limited tube experience, with the terminology, objectives, problems, and techniques peculiar to electron tubes. The articles are intended to provide the basic principle underlying the design, manufacture, and application of the many present-day varieties of tubes." Essentially a massive update of the 1940 RCA book. This was an in-house, proprietary book not released to the public. This book was lent to me for scanning by Ludwell Sibley. 951 pages.

Sylvania Operation and Design of TR and ATR Tubes - No author or date, but likely written by someone at Sylvania for an in-house course sometime in the mid-to-late 1950s. Sylvania was a major maker of TR and ATR tubes. Clear and well-written description of the design and use of TR and ATR tubes in radar systems. The last lecture (starts on page 197 of the pdf) is a good summary on the history and future directions of radar. From the Harold Ulmer collection.