Thursday, April 17, 2014

Tube Chess





YUR-TUBE CHESS
Tommy Mann sent me a pic of his (?) chess set using vintage vacuum tube chessmen.  My first thought was "Wow, I bet that cost $87,000 for the tubes alone!"  But no.  I seem to remember the 6AQ5A tube as being one I was constantly buying at the vacuum tube testing machine store.  I can still smell them; a comforting smell. 

4/17/2014 11:25:00 AM 6 Comments

"If the number of Islamic terror attacks continues at the current rate, candlelight vigils will soon be the number-one cause of global warming. "
Argus Hamilton


Posted by at
Labels: ,

This will be the comment box

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool!!
"that smell.."
I remember it too. Our neighborhood pharmacy - yannow, the kind with lots of wood trim and the owner's name over the door - had a do-it-yourself tube tester near the med counter. They saw me more for testing tubes from our TV and radio on that tube tester than for meds.
Notice I said TV and radio - singular. How did we survive, being so deprived?
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick

4/17/14, 11:35 AM
USMC2841 said...

In 1989 I brought back a box full of tubes that the USMC used in the RT505B from GTMO Bay, Cuba. Tested them at the Rexall drugstore. I was surprised we were still using them. Wrote a "Benny Sug" to move them to vehicular configurations. Cuba was hot enough without lugging one of these around on your back.

4/17/14, 11:57 AM
Rodger the Real King of France said...

After engineering the GOP 1994 House takeover, new Speaker Gingrich would famously hold up a vacuum tube and say, "Can you believe our air traffic control are still using these?"

4/17/14, 12:25 PM
Regnad Kcin said...

Tube powered equipment comes in real handy during a "nuclear crisis". They can handle the EMP overload induced by an airburst nuke that will fry all the unshielded transistor devices. Ironically, the best tubes come from Russia with a stiff tariff. So, if you want to pick up all those important CD messages on your Philco, be sure it's powered by thermionics.

4/17/14, 3:36 PM
Ole Phat Stu said...

oh, YES!

I am so copying that idea!

4/18/14, 1:48 AM
Anonymous said...

Tube-powered guitar amps still sound better than any transistorized ones... to the point where most modern amps include a "tube" switch which emulates the sound.


Kim

4/18/14, 2:01 PM

Post a Comment

Post a Comment

Just type your name and post as anonymous if you don't have a Blogger profile.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)