alt Hacker NewsKind of astonishing that they managed to retain the institutional / folk knowledge to be able to create a new vacuum tube product, never mind the machinery and inputs to manufacture them.
Replies
mezzman • today at 3:28 PM
Dalibor Farny is a great example of bringing nixie tubes back into existence purely by determination and deep research. https://www.daliborfarny.com
ErroneousBosh • today at 3:34 PM
In the 90s China bought the whole Mullard factory and shipped it over from England.
If you buy cheap Chinese valves, you're buying Mullard ones which seem to be made to a higher standard than they ever managed in the 80s. Any two random EL34s out of the box will be a closer match than the crazy expensive "super matched pairs" that we used to buy.
There have been multiple companies coming back to try to make small batches of vacuum tubes.
It’s not a mysterious process that depends on arcane knowledge. It does require some tooling and process refinement, but the only real obstacle is getting enough demand to pay off the investment in tooling and process refinement.