THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG — philips

There has been much discussion over the merits and dangers in running up valves using precious valve testers rather than the safer option of using a powered rig for this purpose.   I have delved into the Mullard document archive today and came up with the photo below which shows Willeke Fokkink in 1955 at Philips Herleen attending to one of the giant valve ageing racks - simply super stuff indeed.

We hear so much about Donald Trump but how many of you realised that he liked early Philips sets - not many I'll bet.   Could this be true or another piece of fake news.   You need irrefutable evidence to make such claims surely, and here it is, look closely at the following photograph:-   As you can see quite clearly, we have a young Donald Trump, in his underpants standing atop a Philips 2531.  The Philips 2531 was quite a technological marvel at introduction in 1930, lasting for a production run of two years in which 42000 units were...

Well, the war was over and 1946 dawned. America had cut off Lend-Lease money to the UK and materials for home and export production were in short supply. There existed a massive surfeit of military surplus electronics which was growing at an alarming rate as war supplies were withdrawn from various theatres of operation. At this time, the great military surplus gravy train was about to commence where not only radio equipment and componentry were available for knockdown prices but military vehicles and even aircraft – and ex RAF pilots to fly them – typically those that did not possess...

Mama Mia!  An e-mail from Vigata in Sicily enquiring about when certain valve bases were introduced.   I know a valve dealer from Sicily you know, he's from Messina and ever such a nice chap but I digress........ There exists a whole raft of valve bases, however, I shall deal with only the most commonly seen bases and their dates of introduction in the following table:- Year of Introduction Valve Base Type Descriptive notes 1916 B4 Introduced by French valve manufacturer Duclos-Fivre 1927 B4 + side screw Introduced for indirectly heated cathodes 1928 B4 + top cap VHF/ UHF anode top...