Anodyne

Dear Emilio, dear Readers,

i would like to inform you that NASA JPL could have been the most important user of this Tube. There exists a Report at the NASA Technical Reports Server which you could find via Google when entering "N72545" as a searchword.

Within this Report different Versions of the tube were mentioned, starting at p.47 of that document where the Type Numbers mentioned were: 2206-SW1 .... 2206-SW6, representing a development path.

Report 10 from January 26, 1954 mentioned "A number of 2206-SW5 type anodyne tubes were fabricated to assemble information on the uniformity of characteristics and to determine the ease of reproducing the
tubes. The type 2206-SW5 tube satisfied all contract specifications relating to the switching tube."

This statement lets me assume that NASA JPL itself could have initiated this development.

The one Anodyne you mentioned, featuring loktal base, was named 2206-SW6, representing the end of the development, having the highest conductance of all versions (1200 micromhos). The described purpose of use was signal switching within a duplexer module.

The last Report mentioned that "50 of each type were fabricated" and "The balance of the 100 tubes each of the SW3 and SW6 designs were also completed".

Dear readers,

Virtally all possible interaction ways among electrons and electrodes were experienced in the past to achieve amplification, but no doubt that this tube from National Union was quite ingenious. No idea of production quantities, but here is a memory of someone that used it and maybe knows more.

- The article from Electronics, August 1955

Regards,

Emilio