Radioactive Vacuum Tubes

Gas-discharge electron tubes work on the principle of electric discharge in gas, which essentially is when a current flows through gas, when a voltage is high enough. But in order for a gas-discharge electron tube to function, the gas needs to be ionized initially, to initiate a discharge. A very reliable way to accomplish this initial ionization, is with a small amount of radioactive material that emits ionizing radiation inside the tube. There are also a few other reasons why an electron tube might be radioactive. Here I show some examples of radioactive electron tubes.

Sources of information:
- Book: "Living with Radiation: The First Hundred Years", by Paul Frame and William Kolb.
- Oak Ridge: https://www.orau.org/health-physics-m...
- Physics Open Lab: https://physicsopenlab.org/2016/06/03...
- Carl Willis: https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2009..., https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2010..., https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2011..., https://www.angelfire.com/electronic/...
- Taylor Wilson: http://www.sciradioactive.com/vacuum-..., https://sites.google.com/site/sciradi...
- Pocketmagic: https://www.pocketmagic.net/top-of-ra...
- Russian Ni-63 tube (use Google Translate): http://www.155la3.ru/th11g.htm
- Radioactive tube spreadsheet (I am not sure how trustworthy it is): http://im13.rhbz.org/albums/userpics/...

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• #vacuum_tube
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• #tg_30
• #tg_57
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