“Check Your Tubes.” I can’t remember the last time I saw one of those charts, or a vacuum-tube tester. Those were neat machines; they looked like small pinball machines. When your TV broke down, you could open it, remove the vacuum tubes and take them to the ThriftDrug. One by one you’d plug the tubes into the right socket on the tester, set the switches and watch the needle on a gauge tell you if the tube needed replacement. Then you could get the clerk to unlock the tester’s cabinet and hand you the right replacement tube. Ride your bike home, put the TV back together, and you’d saved a wait for the TV repairman and his truck.
I wonder how many kids today would think that a vacuum tube is used to clean carpets?
For most of us, the only vacuum tube left in the house is the magnetron in the microwave oven and, no, that’s not something you can unplug and take down to the drugstore… Some of us, of course, have TV’s with actual CRT’s and those, too, are vacuum tubes (technically). Things are a little different in industry though… when it comes to really high power (high power broadcast transmitters come to mind) solid state devices aren’t quite there yet.
Today’s blog posts are powerful. Seeing a “White Only” sign always invokes a great sadness for the inhumanity that our nation was and still is capable of, recognizing at the same time the painful strides we have made.
The narrow European alley with sidewalk cafés is something our country sorely lacks. There is such a feeling of antiquity, of peace, of life at a slower pace.
grapfhics over 13 years ago
Talk about intestinal fortitude!
Sisyphos over 13 years ago
Stranger and stranger. A Sunday FA is here, yet it doesn’t make it into my carousel of comics. Is GoComics trying to hide FA?
Meanwhile—
Uppity Edwardian suffragette! Next thing you know, she’ll want The Vote, too!
x_Tech over 13 years ago
Re Blog, 1943It’s Maple Syrup that wins wars. – Live Free or Die, John Ringo
drbob456x over 13 years ago
Pass the duct tape please.
Bill Thompson over 13 years ago
I’ll need a while to digest this bit of wisdom . . . but this, too, shall pass.
Bill Thompson over 13 years ago
“Check Your Tubes.” I can’t remember the last time I saw one of those charts, or a vacuum-tube tester. Those were neat machines; they looked like small pinball machines. When your TV broke down, you could open it, remove the vacuum tubes and take them to the ThriftDrug. One by one you’d plug the tubes into the right socket on the tester, set the switches and watch the needle on a gauge tell you if the tube needed replacement. Then you could get the clerk to unlock the tester’s cabinet and hand you the right replacement tube. Ride your bike home, put the TV back together, and you’d saved a wait for the TV repairman and his truck.
I wonder how many kids today would think that a vacuum tube is used to clean carpets?
The Old Wolf over 13 years ago
Room flashover videos
Please don’t smoke in bed. (For that matter, please don’t smoke.)
runar over 13 years ago
As long as I’m out of my mind, the duodenum is as good a place as any.
The Old Wolf over 13 years ago
*@BillThompson – I remember those tube testers well, they were everywhere in NYC in the 50’s & 60’s.
Tube Tester
littlejeff over 13 years ago
What has she got in her pocketses, my precioussss?
x_Tech over 13 years ago
Remember vacuum tubes, I still got em
Timothyhayseed over 13 years ago
I thought that it was called a " golden shower " ??
plight over 13 years ago
Mmmmm, bile!
androgenoide over 13 years ago
For most of us, the only vacuum tube left in the house is the magnetron in the microwave oven and, no, that’s not something you can unplug and take down to the drugstore… Some of us, of course, have TV’s with actual CRT’s and those, too, are vacuum tubes (technically). Things are a little different in industry though… when it comes to really high power (high power broadcast transmitters come to mind) solid state devices aren’t quite there yet.
The Old Wolf over 13 years ago
Today’s blog posts are powerful. Seeing a “White Only” sign always invokes a great sadness for the inhumanity that our nation was and still is capable of, recognizing at the same time the painful strides we have made.
The narrow European alley with sidewalk cafés is something our country sorely lacks. There is such a feeling of antiquity, of peace, of life at a slower pace.
Thank you for these images, as always.
sandboil over 13 years ago
It’s a tough squeeze but I’ll get out somehow.