Westinghouse Lamp Company Experimental Radio Tube, 1920-1921

01

Artifact Overview

Radio engineer McMurdo Silver created six tiny experimental vacuum tubes while employed at Westinghouse Electric in the early 1920s. The tubes were near-duplicates of Western Electric's VT-5s--the original "peanut" tubes. Tubes like these were essential to the low-powered trench radios used in WWI. Silver went on to found Silver-Marshall Inc. and frequently contributed technical articles to radio hobbyist magazines.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Vacuum tube

Date Made

1920-1921

Creator Notes

Vacuum tube created by McMurdo Silver while working for Westinghouse Lamp Company.

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

35.434.216.2

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of McMurdo Silver.

Material

Glass (Material)
Copper (Metal)

Dimensions

Height: 3 in
Diameter: 0.75 in

Westinghouse Lamp Company Experimental Radio Tube, 1920-1921