Posted on Sunday, 19th April 2009 by Jimmy Auw

I dig my tube boxes and found this old tube. Not a really expensive or most wanted tube, yeah… just an old Western Electric 393A tube. It’s a Argon and Mercury Vapor filled Thyratron tube. According to the datasheet, the addition of Argon gas on the Mercury Vapor atmosphere allows the tube to start conducting at low temperature. Ok, forget those technical literature, just watch the tube in action.

I heat up the tube for a while. According to the manual, to maintain the life span, it’s recommended to heat it up first. I give around 3-4 minutes. You can see the filament is glowing inside the metal bracket on the center of the tube.

Time for action, activate the High Voltage… Voila, the sky of blue on the top of the tube. Very beautiful!!! You still can see the red filament glowing inside the blue Mercury atmosphere.

I also take another shoot. This one is my 12B4A tube. I like the color and the design of the tube (with a straight glowing bar from bottom to the top).

I will keep posting other glowing tube if I can find some more. Time to dig some of my old tube again ;)


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Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (8)

8 Responses to “Beautiful Glowing Tubes This Week”

  1. Dino Ary Says:
    April 19th, 2009 at 21:55

    Nice Pics…
    Thanks for sharing…

    (Err.. Looks like you’re trying to cure yourself, brother.. hahahaha… due to that Saturday 18/04 High Voltage session wasn’t it?… hahahaha)



  2. Jimmy Auw Says:
    April 19th, 2009 at 22:12

    1000V… Here I come!!!

    Thanks bro!



  3. Damar.N Says:
    April 20th, 2009 at 12:57

    wiih…1000V!!..Mantep tuh kalo kena kita..gosong dah langsung.. :)



  4. Jimmy Auw Says:
    April 20th, 2009 at 17:11

    2000V tepatnya bro karena 1000V+CT.

    Thanks.



  5. Damar.N Says:
    April 22nd, 2009 at 13:03

    haa….2000V..manteeb…bagi satu dong ampli tabungnyaa….
    *Just kidding*



  6. yona Says:
    June 4th, 2009 at 16:22

    Ihhh… cantik,sexxxi.. buanget apalagi yang warna biru
    klo mo tau lampu klo pengen beli di toko listerik, lampu kayak gitu namanya apa ya?
    lumayan buat hiasan di ruang tamu, whehehe…



  7. Benny Benyamin Mulky Says:
    August 23rd, 2009 at 03:24

    keren banget……I must have one of those tubes…hehehe



  8. orang Indonesia Says:
    October 1st, 2009 at 20:20

    kalau yang ini bagaimana?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLzXueWH8qo&feature=related



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