Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 2, Spare/Replacement Electronic Valves

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Subcollections

Communications Gallery - Centenary of Royal Australian Corps of Signals

Overview

A critical operating component of World War 2 era military radios, replacement valves were carefully packed and carried as part of the spare parts inventory. Electronic valves in radios are used for amplification and oscillation to increase the sensitivity of receivers. Transmitting valves produce clean continuous wave radio frequency power.

Historical information

A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
The type known as a thermionic tube or thermionic valve utilizes thermionic emission of electrons from a hot cathode for fundamental electronic functions such as signal amplification and current rectification. In an audio power amplifier, the hot cathodes emit a distinctive red-orange glow.
The simplest vacuum tube, the diode was invented in 1904. It contains only a heated electron-emitting cathode and an anode. Electrons can flow in only one direction through the device—from the cathode to the anode. Adding one or more control grids within the tube allows the current between the cathode and anode to be controlled by the voltage on the grids.
These devices became a key component of electronic circuits for the first half of the twentieth century. They were crucial to the developmentof radio, television, radar, sound recording and reproduction, long-distance telephone networks, and analog and early digital computers.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-54-947

Contextual Information

This exhibit is located in the Communications Gallery commissioned by the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia as part of the Centenary commemorations of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals. Communication devices used by the Australian Army also are presented in their operational context throughout the Museum.

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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