Tubes' blue 'glowing'

elfredoo

elfredoo

New member
what i always wondered: why do some poweramp tubes glow blueish and some don't (or glow blueish more/less)? and what does it mean? :confused:
 
Can happen for several reasons, but at any given rate, it's dead sexy when it does happen...

The blue glow can be from electrons interacting with the glass (phosphorous atoms contained in the glass), or the interaction of electrons with ions within the bottle - there are hard vacuums and soft vacuum tubes with a bit of gas in either. The ions left within these 'vacuums' will light up, or, the ions within the gas light up.

I hope this helps.
Mo
 
My Cameron Modded Sovtek does this unlike any of my others. And agree its a thing of beauty to behold.
 
In a perfect vacuum, there would be no gasses present. However, no vacuum pulled on a valve bottle is perfect. Inside the valve you have inert gasses present (I believe argon is one of them). As electrons flow from the cathode to the plate, they strike the atoms within the inert gasses, causing a flouresence effect, which is the blue glow you see in the bottle when the valve is forward conducting.

And yes...its appearance is beyond sexy. ;)
 
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