> Also note that we use the term 'valve' for diodes, triodes, etc, but > 'tube' for CRTs, nixie tubes, dekatrons, voltage stabilisers, > probably trochotrons, etc. There seems to be no obvious reason for > what is a 'valve' and what is a 'tube'.
Based on your examples, it sounds to me as though a "valve" is a vacuum device whose major purpose is to control current flowing elsewhere in its circuit, whereas a "tube" is anything else - a CRT's major purpose is display, with the current flow incidental to that; Nixies, dekatrons, and voltage stabilizers are cold-cathode gas-filled devices. A trochotron...that's an interesting case. On the above (speculative) basis I could argue for either "valve" or "tube". Incidentally, thank you for mentioning trochotrons. I was not previously aware of them, and now that I've read up on them a tiny bit I'm glad I have. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mo...@rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B
