Vacuum tubes textbook

Question

"The art of Electronics" is often adviced as a basic, non-academic textbook for beginners and for all the enthusiasts. It is referenced also in several questions like this one. But in the Table of contents it does not have a chapter dedicated to vacuum tubes.

Is there some other book, with a similar approach, which specifically deals with vacuum tubes and shows some amplifier example?

you can try reading some books on microwave, they do have vaccum tubes devoted sections. — MaMba, Sep 01 '15 at 17:58
There are quite new books but they are more focused on audio amplifier circuits like « valve amplifiers » (4th edition) by Morgan Jones. — greg, Sep 02 '15 at 10:46
Another good resource. This guy scans tons of old textbooks, manuals, datasheets, etc...: http://www.pmillett.com/ — Avid Pro Tool, May 29 '18 at 23:34

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 01 '15 at 14:56

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Similar approach may be a tall request- H&H's approach is not typical of older books.

The Radio Amateur's Handbook is a good reference.

The best in-depth reference is probably the MIT Radiation Laboratory series, covering all sorts of military-related wartime electronics work. Many of the techniques can be translated into modern electronics.

answered Sep 01 '15 at 14:56

Spehro Pefhany

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+1 for RAH (published by the ARRL). I spent many long hours as a teen studying the designs in there. – Dave Tweed Sep 01 '15 at 22:12

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '15 at 14:56

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Try to find a old RCA Receiving Tube Manual from the early 1970s or earlier. These were basically a collection of datasheets for the tubes RCA made, but also had some introductory chapters on tube design, circuit design with tubes, and example circuits.

answered Sep 01 '15 at 14:56

Olin Lathrop

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Good answer. Just Google "RCA Receiving Tube Manual" and several free pdf's will show. – Barry Sep 01 '15 at 18:15

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 01 '15 at 15:39

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It's not really a book like Art of Electronics, but a great online source for info on tubes is TubeBooks.org

answered Sep 01 '15 at 15:39

DLS3141

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 31 '17 at 17:06

There are a number of great vacuum tube books, but it kind of depends on what you want to do. If you're doing guitar or hifi amps, I would highly recommend the appropriate book (he has one for each) by Merlin Blencowe (a.k.a. Valve Wizard). He's an exceptional writer who's very good at making tubes VERY easy to understand.

From Tube Books (http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm), I would recommend "Basic Audio" by Norman Crowhurst. He's also very easy reading and covers a wide range of topics.

Also on Tube Books is RCA's Radiotron Designer's Handbook, which for a long time has been THE go-to book on radio tubes. It's much more math heavy than the other authors, but lots of great info.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 01 '15 at 20:08

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I'm not an expert in electronics, so I don't know what the H&H approach is, but as an enthusiastic artist smitten with the intricacy of tubes, I wonder if archive.org's holdings might be the answer:

https://archive.org/details/vacuumtubemanuals

Particularly charming cartoons start this book:https://archive.org/details/Rider_-_Inside_the_Vacuum_Tube_1945

answered Sep 01 '15 at 20:08

Tom

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H&H are Horowitz and Hill, the authors of [The Art of Electronics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Electronics). – Dave Tweed Sep 01 '15 at 22:07

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 11 '20 at 19:47

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Here's a free resource that is basically a small textbook:

Vacuum Tube Addendum

answered May 11 '20 at 19:47

nate

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 09 '15 at 23:22

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DRAKE radio encyclopedia 1928 edition .Fascinating to see what they knew then .If you look up "computer " there is nothing.Very entertaining book .

answered Nov 09 '15 at 23:22

Autistic

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Thanks for the suggestion. I am struggling to find it by a Google search. Do you have any direct link? – BowPark May 12 '20 at 14:26

Vacuum tubes textbook

7 Answers7