Bontsch-Brujewitsch

Mikhail Alexandrovich Bontsch-Brujewitsch worked in the radio station Tver from Nigniy-Novgorod from 1915 and near the End of 1915 he could fabricate a few of his radio tubes to replace French tubes used, which burned out after 10 days. His tube lasted 28 days. They were soft tubes with nitrogen. See the article in German about the very early tubes designed in Russia (like also the Papaleksi tube).

We show you the data from the book "History of Radio Communication" in Russian from the Exposition of A.S. Popov Central, Museum of Communications in st. Petersburg, 2008. This book dates the tube to 1916 because the first examples at the end of 1915 were only hand made samples to use for the transmitter.

A short biography of M.A.Bontsch-Brujewitsch:

The foremost expert in radio tubes in Tsarist Russia was M.A.Bontsch-Brujewitsch. (Bonch-Buevich or Boncz-Brujewicz). Born February 9th, 1888 in Oriol and dying March 7th, 1940 in Leningrad. Son of Alexander Bontsch- Brujewitsch, he lived in Kiev from 1896. He was an electrician and engineer and completed his studies at Nikolai Inginerschule in St Petersburg in 1914. He served in the Russian Army as a proffessional officer, expert in electron valves and radiolocation from 1915 to 1919. He organized the first production of one as chief of the high frequency section in the central laboratory of the War Department in the middle of 1917. (the first broadcast tubes and tube sets appeared in the Russian Air Force in 1917). He was director of radio tube development in the laboratory from 1918 to 1920 and was the author (designer?) of the Broadcasting Stations Project in Moscow in 1922. In 1917 he became aware of the French TM triode tube and late in 1919 had developed a similar style tube. The element structure of this tube was different to the French tube as it used aluminium for the anode. This as because of the problem of obtaining other suitable metals at the time. Tynes book showa a picture of this tube and it appears to have a rectangular anode. He built a radio transmitter for the Communist International which was high powered and he was also heavily involved with the development of radar in the Soviet Union. A commemorative postage stamp was issued by the Government in his honour in 1988. His son, Alexei Bontsch-Brujewitsch, (born 1916) was also a Soviet expert on radio tube technology in later years.

This biography has been refined into plain English from the literal translation.

References:

1)"Czarist Russia made Radio Tubes!", AWA Old Timers Bulletin, Vol 24, No1 - June 1983 (article by the late Tom Briggs).

2) "Progress in Radio Engineering in Russia 1918-1922", V. Basenhoff. IEEE Proceedings Vol 11, Issue no 3, June 1923 - pages 257-270

3) "The Ninzhi Novgorod Radio Factory" 1916-1926, C. Zaitseff. Pages 382-393

4) "Mikhail Alexandrovich Bontsch-Brujewitsch" Wikipedia biography - input date unknown.

5) "Saga of the Vacuum Tube", G F J Tyne. Howard W Sams & Co, Inc. 1977 - pages 272 and 273