A new type of high power vacuum tube

The type of vacuum tube described in the present article is likely to become one of the most remarkable devices of modern electrical science. Vacuum tubes capable of handling small amounts of power have been extensively used during the past few years as telephone repeaters and as oscillators, modulators, detectors and amplifiers in radio transmission and other fields. Practically all such tubes have depended upon thermal radiation from the plates to dissipate the electrical energy which the device necessarily absorbs during its operation. With present methods of construction, and using glass for the containing bulb, a fairly definite upper limit can be set for the power which a radiation cooled tube can handle; as the author points out, this limit gives a tube capable of delivering about 1 to 2 k. w. when used as an oscillator. Contrasted with this, one of the water-cooled vacuum tubes described herewith, although scarcely two feet in length and weighing only ten pounds, is capable of delivering 100 k. w. of high frequency energy. Another tube of similar construction, but somewhat smaller in size, and capable of delivering about 10 k. w. is also described. It is expected that these water-cooled tubes will find important applications in radio telephony and telegraphy. Although the principle of operation of the water-cooled tube described in this article is identical from an electrical point of view with that of the small tubes which are now so very familiar, their practicability has only been made possible by a new and striking development in the art of sealing metal to glass. In the case of the 100 k. w. tube the seal between the cylindrical copper anode and glass portion is 3.5 inches in diameter. The remarkable character of these copper-in-glass seals is evidenced by the fact that they do not depend upon a substantial equality between the coefficient of expansion of the metal and glass. To Mr. W. G. Houskeeper of the Bell System Research Laboratory at the Western Electric Company, goes the credit for developing the copper-in-glass seals. As the article brings out, Mr. Houskeeper has also invented means for sealing heavy copper wire and strip through glass in such a way that the best vacua can be maintained under wide changes of temperature. — Editor.