Don Pearce wrote:
On Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:19:10 -0800 (PST), Engineer
wrote:

On Dec 14, 10:23 am, "David Looser"
wrote:
"Ian Bell" wrote in message

...

Don Pearce wrote:
Interesting insight into the way things were in the 60s - I've just
been reading a Wireless World from November of that year. Valves
(tubes for those across the pond) were extremely cheap. And
transistors cost pretty much the same, which is why we treated them
with kid gloves and thermal shunts when soldering them into circuits.
http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/valves.jpg
Money conversion for the young and foreign:
20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling. A price given as
5/6 meant five shillings and six pence. So an ECC84 at 6/6 is 32.5
pence in today's money. A 28012 transistor, by contrast at 140/- is
seven pounds - getting on for half the weekly wage of some people back
then.
I may post some ads for complete equipment later, just to make you
cry.
d
I have some WW from 1940 to 46 - I'll see if I can find a camparison page.
Valve prices didn't change much in money terms between the 1930s and the
1960s. There might have been a slight reduction, but not a lot. Of course
inflation was low during that time too. Transistors on the other hand
dropped dramatically in price and carried on doing so for a long time. An
article I have from a 1952 edition of 'Radio Constructor' refers to "some
(transistors) the writer recently obtained from the USA cost almost as much
as a miniature receiver". Whilst these days a bag of 100 BC548s costs but a
few pennies each.

David.

Ian
Way, way back, I nearly cried when I fried an OC71 in an audio stage I
was trying to make!

They were down to 5 Bob by 1966 - absolute bargain, particularly when
you scraped the paint off and used them for a photo transistor. I
first discovered this by accident when an amplifier I had made hummed
when I took the hardboard cover off the back.

d

And then a few years later they filled them with some opaque goop so you
couldn't and sold clear ones as the OCP71 at a much higher price - *******s!

Cheers

ian

Who recalls the RT and VC kit transistor radio called the Elegant 7,
refering to a whole seven transistors!
I built one of these, but the output transistors were faulty and after ten
minutes they would get very hot and the output would stop. Tuurn it off for
a few minutes and it did it all again. In the end the company sent us a set
of matched GET 114s and all was well!

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Engineer" wrote in message
...
On Dec 14, 10:23 am, "David Looser"
wrote:
"Ian Bell" wrote in message

...

Don Pearce wrote:
Interesting insight into the way things were in the 60s - I've just
been reading a Wireless World from November of that year. Valves
(tubes for those across the pond) were extremely cheap. And
transistors cost pretty much the same, which is why we treated them
with kid gloves and thermal shunts when soldering them into circuits.

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/valves.jpg

Money conversion for the young and foreign:

20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling. A price given as
5/6 meant five shillings and six pence. So an ECC84 at 6/6 is 32.5
pence in today's money. A 28012 transistor, by contrast at 140/- is
seven pounds - getting on for half the weekly wage of some people back
then.

I may post some ads for complete equipment later, just to make you
cry.

d

I have some WW from 1940 to 46 - I'll see if I can find a camparison
page.

Valve prices didn't change much in money terms between the 1930s and the
1960s. There might have been a slight reduction, but not a lot. Of course
inflation was low during that time too. Transistors on the other hand
dropped dramatically in price and carried on doing so for a long time. An
article I have from a 1952 edition of 'Radio Constructor' refers to "some
(transistors) the writer recently obtained from the USA cost almost as
much
as a miniature receiver". Whilst these days a bag of 100 BC548s costs but
a
few pennies each.

David.

Ian

Way, way back, I nearly cried when I fried an OC71 in an audio stage I
was trying to make!
Cheers,
Roger

On Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:50:10 GMT, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Who recalls the RT and VC kit transistor radio called the Elegant 7,
refering to a whole seven transistors!
I built one of these, but the output transistors were faulty and after ten
minutes they would get very hot and the output would stop. Tuurn it off for
a few minutes and it did it all again. In the end the company sent us a set
of matched GET 114s and all was well!

Brian

Sorry you can't see this, but here's the original ad for the Elegant
Seven at four guineas. Also on this page is my first ever valve amp an
SET (tetrode not triode) down on the right - 3 to 4 watts, it says. It
even worked.

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/seven.jpg

d

David Looser wrote:
"Ian Bell" wrote in message
...
Don Pearce wrote:
Interesting insight into the way things were in the 60s - I've just
been reading a Wireless World from November of that year. Valves
(tubes for those across the pond) were extremely cheap. And
transistors cost pretty much the same, which is why we treated them
with kid gloves and thermal shunts when soldering them into circuits.

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/valves.jpg

Money conversion for the young and foreign:

20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling. A price given as
5/6 meant five shillings and six pence. So an ECC84 at 6/6 is 32.5
pence in today's money. A 28012 transistor, by contrast at 140/- is
seven pounds - getting on for half the weekly wage of some people back
then.

I may post some ads for complete equipment later, just to make you
cry.

d

I have some WW from 1940 to 46 - I'll see if I can find a camparison page.

Valve prices didn't change much in money terms between the 1930s and the
1960s. There might have been a slight reduction, but not a lot. Of course
inflation was low during that time too. Transistors on the other hand
dropped dramatically in price and carried on doing so for a long time. An
article I have from a 1952 edition of 'Radio Constructor' refers to "some
(transistors) the writer recently obtained from the USA cost almost as much
as a miniature receiver". Whilst these days a bag of 100 BC548s costs but a
few pennies each.

David.


Ian




Yes, integrated circuits went through a similar curve. I have an article
form the 80s I think that bemoans the price of the NE5532 at the time.

Cheers

ian

If anyone has some old Practical Televisions, I can recall adverts for tube
rejuvenators which claimed to be able to make television tubes work again
after they had gone low emission.

Then there were endless projects In Practical Wireles for things like Valve
ohm meters, and grid dip oscillators.


In some later television mags, when valves were being phased out, some
enterprising folk actually made valve replacements circuits using
semiconductors on a valve base!

As I recall, one flashover and they were history.

grin.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
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in the display name may be lost.
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"Ian Bell" wrote in message
...
Don Pearce wrote:
Interesting insight into the way things were in the 60s - I've just
been reading a Wireless World from November of that year. Valves
(tubes for those across the pond) were extremely cheap. And
transistors cost pretty much the same, which is why we treated them
with kid gloves and thermal shunts when soldering them into circuits.

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/valves.jpg

Money conversion for the young and foreign:

20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling. A price given as
5/6 meant five shillings and six pence. So an ECC84 at 6/6 is 32.5
pence in today's money. A 28012 transistor, by contrast at 140/- is
seven pounds - getting on for half the weekly wage of some people back
then.

I may post some ads for complete equipment later, just to make you
cry.

d


I have some WW from 1940 to 46 - I'll see if I can find a camparison page.

Cheers

Ian

"Brian Gaff" wrote

In some later television mags, when valves were being phased out, some
enterprising folk actually made valve replacements circuits using
semiconductors on a valve base!

Plug-in semiconductor equivalents for valves were produced by the major
manufacturers for many years and widely used in professional and industrial
equipment.

As I recall, one flashover and they were history.

Only if they had been incompetently designed.

David.

Well, I think it was often the usage which was incompetent much of the time.
Dusty eht units in damp rooms...
Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"David Looser" wrote in message
...

"Brian Gaff" wrote

In some later television mags, when valves were being phased out, some
enterprising folk actually made valve replacements circuits using
semiconductors on a valve base!

Plug-in semiconductor equivalents for valves were produced by the major
manufacturers for many years and widely used in professional and
industrial equipment.

As I recall, one flashover and they were history.

Only if they had been incompetently designed.

David.

Its purely because of mass production of course. once the main factories
making valves got below a certain number prices started going up, and vice
versa for semiconductors of course.
I think one has to be careful if buying the Chinese copies of valves around
at the current time, as quality control is almost non existent, though some
Russian ones are made a lot better I'm told.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
Interesting insight into the way things were in the 60s - I've just
been reading a Wireless World from November of that year. Valves
(tubes for those across the pond) were extremely cheap. And
transistors cost pretty much the same, which is why we treated them
with kid gloves and thermal shunts when soldering them into circuits.

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/valves.jpg

Money conversion for the young and foreign:

20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling. A price given as
5/6 meant five shillings and six pence. So an ECC84 at 6/6 is 32.5
pence in today's money. A 28012 transistor, by contrast at 140/- is
seven pounds - getting on for half the weekly wage of some people back
then.

I may post some ads for complete equipment later, just to make you
cry.

d

"Brian Gaff" wrote

Its purely because of mass production of course. once the main factories
making valves got below a certain number prices started going up, and vice
versa for semiconductors of course.

Not "purely". Until the planar technique came along transistor production
was quite labour-intensive. And the Bell Labs patent also helped to keep
transistor prices high whilst it lasted.

David.

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
news
Its purely because of mass production of course. once the main
factories making valves got below a certain number prices
started going up, and vice versa for semiconductors of course.
I think one has to be careful if buying the Chinese copies of
valves around at the current time, as quality control is almost
non existent, though some Russian ones are made a lot better
I'm told.

Brian


Not just then, try now! The only source for most valves for audio
amps is Chinese with some Russian hanging around in the
background. The Chinese ones are something over £25 a pop for
KT66 or KT88, but I saw some Russian ones a few months back that
went on eBay ( think it was) for the thick end of a ton apiece.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com