"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...

Now to me, tubes are cathode ray tubes, not valves which the US call tubes
for no apparent reason. A tube would he an open ended thing. Surely
thermionic valve is a description.

Fleming called his thermionic diode a "valve" by analogy with one-way valves
used in hydraulics, and the name stuck, at least in England. De Forest
called his thermionic triode an "audion" and the name failed to stick,
either here or in the US. "Tube" obviously refers to the shape, though since
early valves were bulbous rather than cylindrical one wonders why the
American's didn't call them "globes".

The CRT pre-dates the valve and as far as I know have always been called
"cathode ray tubes" both sides of the Atlantic. Unlike early valves they
always had a cylindrical section, though the screen end was an approximate
sphere in early CRTs.

The question really is, why are displays based on this principal called
tubes and what do the Americans call those?

"Cathode ray tube" is a bit of a mouthful. In England it was often
shortened to "tube". In the US it was shortened to "CRT", as indeed it often
is here.


But the REAL question is, why does a UK based poster posting to a uk
newsgroup choose to call his valves "tubes"?

David.