Building Blocks: The Vacuum Tubes

In my little words and knowledge, I would try 
to discuss about the Vacuum tubes and derivative
as much as I can. I am not perfect and might make
some errors.

Vacuum tubes or Vacuum valves as most would call it are devices used to control the flow of electric currents. They are tubes with vacuum consisting of electrodes which can be either 2,3,4 or 5 in number that has a potential difference applied across them. Yeah these seems hard to digest and follow, so I thought also when I did my researches on them.

This article would sound pleasing to those in the Science field or particularly, to Physics students. If you are not related to any of these or have no idea about what I am saying , no worries as you can start reading about them. If you don't have interest, it no bother all I am trying to say in this article is that we have come a long way in terms of technology advancements and we started somewhere with the Vacuum Tubes being one of those places. Without them , stuffs like listening to radio, charging our phones, watching the television,amplifying signals and major actions won't be possible. Smiles

Now , I start: Glass Tubes that have been sealed and vacuumed off of air with electrodes across it ends  having a potential difference across it can be termed Vacuum Tubes and they are used to control the flow of electric current. In order word, you can create your own vacuum tube but it might not be efficient as the ones produced industrially.

We have grown exponentially in the developments of Electronics and have had great achievements to show for it. Exceptional and impressive devices have been made that has aided us to where we are, devices of such being the Vacuum Tubes. Vacuum tubes are very important devices as they constitute as the building blocks of most Electronics and they are indispensable. There are different types of vacuum tubes with different operations such as the thermoionic tube or the phototube. The Phototubes and the Thermoionic tubes all involve the emissions of electrons from the cathode and accelerated towards the anode by the help of an electric field and polarity of plates but the mode of operation needed to emit the electrons differ. The Thermoionic tube uses the principle of heating the cathode element ( hot cathode ) thereby releasing electrons while the Phototube uses the principle of light of certain wavelength and frequency ( photoelectric ) to emit electrons. .

One of the most simple vacuum tube in terms of applications and construction would be the diode invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming. It operates on the thermoionic principle consisting only of a hot cathode and an anode and the electric current produced can be controlled with the help of a control grid ; the diode is a one way device as it allows the flow of current only in one way - from the cathode to the anode. You must have all heard of the Light Emitting Diodes ( LEDs) which might have the word "diode" in it but these aren't vacuum tubes ... they work on another principle and a major constituent in LEDs is the semiconductor. They are also termed diode as they allow the flow of current in one direction also using a P-N junction which can be similar to the principle of a cathode and anode also.

What are LEDs ? Well ,they are those light indicators we see on our socket extension, phone chargers, blinking Christmas lights and more.. They can be termed little light bulbs . LEDs are different from Gas discharge tubes used for Neon lightings.

I come to a close on my little shout out to development.

Disclaimer: This article was written from the product of series of research and information gathered by me. Feel free to DYOR This article can be subjected to correction as all information said were gathered by researches , they can or cannot be perfect.