Tom Jennings
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Electron tube database, 1958--1961

Updated 14 feb 2020
Updated 5 December, 2003

This database contains technical specifications on some 2000+ electron tubes, mainly obscure and hard-to-find devices, mainly American JEDEC numbers. The technical data is contained in the high-resolution color scans of over 20 original catalogs from 1958 to 1963, and nested HTML indices of all the devices in the catalogs.

Note that devices considered "receiving tubes", eg. those found in radios and TVs will not be found here. Data on those is pretty easy to find. The most common book for receiving tubes is the "RCA Receiving Tube Manual RC-19", (where "19" is a recent (sic) revision). Try Fair Radio Supply or a Google search.

Thanks to David Forbes for providing lots of Burroughs and National NIXIE data, including scanning and indexing them. If you see any errors, contact me, not David.

And here is some additional Nixie display tube data that doesn't fit with the database requirements for the rest of the data; it includes devices B4081, 7977, 7009, B4021, B6844A, 8037, B5031, B5092, 7153, B6033, B6091, B8091, B7904, 5870S, 5870ST, 5870SF, 5870TF, 5870L.

Tube/device numbering isn't random, at least some of the fields in a part number contain meaning. Check out Duncan's Amp Pages for a breakdown. It's a great page.

Due to the large number of devices it was not possible to check each entry for errors. If you find an error please inform me (Tom Jennings). Please be specific as you can, eg.: "The index for 6AU6 says data is on page 4 and 5 of catalog BLATZ, but it's really on pages 6 and 7." And thanks to the many people who took the time to write in with error reports, I really appreciate it (even if it did take me five months to incorporate the last batch...)

Note on the catalogs and catalog page images copyright

I do not have copyright to the print catalogs and therefore probably no ownership rights to the images thereof; these images are exempt from Creative Commons copyright of this website's contents. The catalogs are very old, some of the companies that produced them are long gone, either absorbed by competitors. I derive no income or compensation in any way direct or indirect from them (hell, they cost me money to post).


Index of tubes by device number

Device numbers beginning with '0'

Device numbers beginning with '1'

Device numbers beginning with '2'

Device numbers beginning with '3'

Device numbers beginning with '4'

Device numbers beginning with '5'

Device numbers beginning with '6'

Device numbers beginning with '7'

Device numbers beginning with '8'

Device numbers beginning with '9'

Device numbers beginning with 'A'

Device numbers beginning with 'B'

Device numbers beginning with 'C'

Device numbers beginning with 'D'

Device numbers beginning with 'E'

Device numbers beginning with 'F'

Device numbers beginning with 'G'

Device numbers beginning with 'H'

Device numbers beginning with 'I'

Device numbers beginning with 'K'

Device numbers beginning with 'M'

Device numbers beginning with 'N'

Device numbers beginning with 'P'

Device numbers beginning with 'Q'

Device numbers beginning with 'R'

Device numbers beginning with 'S'

Device numbers beginning with 'U'

Device numbers beginning with 'V'

Device numbers beginning with 'X'

Device numbers beginning with 'Y'

Device numbers beginning with 'Z'

Website contents, unless otherwise specified, © 2023 by Tom Jennings is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0