How A Tube Works

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Great memory jogger. It seemed so much easier to understand when I was 12 years old playing with TV s & old radios. Such a shame the young people of today won't ever experience the wonder of it all. ( Here son go play with this old TV it's only got 18,000 volts inside ) yet I survived childhood. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.

Humans are truly amazing. The amount of knowledge that a single member of our species can hold for a single profession is astonishing. When you group all of these experts into a common civilization, great things are achieved. I'm more of a jack of many trades, master of none, but I can sure appreciate masters such as Mr. Carlson and his dedication to the craft and willingness to share that precious data he's saved on his own biological hard drive.

A 34 years old man is learning science from youtube. Thank you very much for your superb explanation Mr Carlson.

Compared to modern electronics, these old tube sets are absolutely beautiful. And a work of art!

This was the best education on vacuum tubes, I have ever seen. Your analogy, using the Venetian blind and the light bulb and wall was totally brilliant. I was brought up in the 50's and my dad worked for Sparton and was a tube man all the way. We built crystal sets and single and dual tube radios together and I had a learning experience that way, but never got the simple explanation you gave me....Thank You So Much!!!

Mr Carlson, you are amazing! I am 65 years old and always wondered how a vacuum tube worked. I remember when I was a child, my dad going to the drug store and testing the tubes of our TV. Then picking out the new tube from the cabinet below the tester, driving home and replacing the faulty tube. I was intrigued at how a little glass thing could make a picture and sound. After watching other electronics lessons online and learning about cathodes, anodes, resistors and diodes work, I can understand the basics of a vacuum tube. Thank you so much for your time.

My wife told me I spend too much on my electronics hobby after I bought a 35 dollar bench lab power supply on Ebay. I showed her the beginning of this video and she instantly was quiet. First time ever. She has not complained since. THANK YOU!!!!!

Stereo enthusiast here 👋 Solid State is cool, but tubes rule! I’m wanting to learn as much about tubes as I can so I can design and build my own tube amp some day. It’s truly fascinating.

I've been an electronics Engineer for 35 years and I'm STILL learning. I love watching these fixit videos. I try to second guess the problems before Paul does. I LOVE fixing things, so much I'll fix things for people for free (parts cost only).

I am 72 and remember tubes and transistors. I miss the projects in the old electronic magazines and going to Radio Shack for parts. I was in electronics in the AF.

Thanks - I enjoyed this one. A series on basic amplifier design using vacuum tubes would be great - showing typical use cases, etc. When I was much younger, I remember being intimidated by the sheer number of connections shown on a vacuum tube. It wasn't until much later that I learned that many of the connections (screen, suppressor, etc.) were just DC bias connections that improved the basic "triode" device's performance. Showing some examples of classic radio schematics and breaking them down into bias and signal paths would be helpful for a lot of people I think. Nice job as always.

One of the best explanations on vacuum tube principles of operation I've ever seen. Outstanding job!

Bringing back memories, as my dad spent decades changing tubes in TVs and radios! And your explanations are great, too! Thanks. Glad the ElectroBoom video sent me here. 🙂

You’re presentation is to the point and the deliberate pace at which you speak is perfect as far as I am concerned. I will be watching many more of your uploads and certainly appreciate your time spent .

Good explanation on tube structure and how it works not many people today know or care to thinking it's obsolete

I was just looking at some vacuum tubes in an antique store today and was wondering how they worked. One was from 1930, nearly a hundred years old. Great to see how it all works!

Mr. Carlson, you are the Electronic's Doctor and vacuum tubes! We enjoy watching your work and explanation of what's going on with these individual parts, thanks for sharing a part of what's in your head, yikes!! 😗

I remember being absolutely fascinated with vacuum tubes when I was a kid. I think it was their use in guitar amplifiers that first got me interested. In sixth grade, must have been around 1989 or 1990, I wrote an essay on Lee DeForest for an assignment. I used to love riding my bike down to RadioShack when I got my allowance where they had shelves full of components and boards an boxes and switches and pick out components and stuff and try to make my own distortion peddles for my electric guitar. I had one of those 300 in 1 electric kit toys too. But vacuum tubes always fascinated me more than solid state components. I remember the first time I got my hands on one was in a storage room in the locker room at school where I saw there was an old PA amplifier opened up and I quickly snuck in and took two of the tubes. I would sit in my room and look at them. I think the thing that most impressed me then was the powerful sound they could generate. I never did get into electronics for a career but I still am interested in it.

Thank you Sir Carlson. May I please compliment your teaching style. Very good teacher, excellent tone of voice; I hear patients and at the same time, enthusiasm. Much admired, the Queen would approve.