The Valve Technology Milestone Timeline
 Courtesy to the National Valve Museum

1640	The first vacuum. Otto von Guericke's air pump
1643	The barometer first demonstrated by Evangelista Torricelli
1654	Magdeberg Hemispheres a demonstration of the force of air pressure
1672	Improved air pump and treatise on vacuum experiments published.
1716	Jacob Hermann suggests that gas pressure is proportional to density and to the square of the average velocity of the gas particles in motion
1811	A principle stated in 1811 by the Italian chemist Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856) that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules regardless of their chemical nature and physical properties
1855	Johann Geissler produces a mercury vacuum pump and with it he produces the first good vacuum discharge tubes
1856	Karl Kronig suggests that gas molecules in equilibrium travel in straight lines unless they collide with something
1858	Julius Plucker demonstrated that magnetic fields bend what later became known as cathode rays.
1860	Joseph Swann patents the the carbon filament incandescent lamp that operates in a partial vacuum
1862	Geissler-Topler mercury vacuum pump developed
1865	Hermann Sprengel develops the mercury drop pump
1870	Sir William Crookes vacuum pumping system
1871	C F Varley suggests that cathode rays are particles
1871	Sir William Crookes advances the idea that cathode rays are negatively charged particles
1874	G R Carey invents the photo-electric cell
1876	Sir William Crookes demonstrates pumping by chemical getters
1876	L von Babo develops a self-recycling Sprengel vacuum pump
1876	Alexander Graham Bell invents and demonstrates the telephone
1879	Thomas A Edison files US patent on high vacuum carbon filament incandescent lamp
1879	Sir William Crookes develops the Crookes Tube, an early form of cathode ray tube
1879	Edison improves the self-recycling Sprengel-Geissler mercury vacuum pump
1880	Apparatus for evacuating Edison's electric lamps. Based on Crookes design
1883	Thomas A Edison first observes thermionic emission in a vacuum
1883	John Ambrose Fleming presents a paper on the 'molecular shadow' to the Physical Society of London on May 26
1883	In October 1883 the amalgamation of Edison Electric Light Co Ltd and Swan Electric Lighting Co to form Edison and Swan United Electric Light Co. Ltd.
1887	Sir William Crookes performs the Maltese Cross experiment
1889	Jonathan Zenneck improves Braun's CRT and adds time base deflection
1889	The British General Electric Co. Ltd was formed
1885	Sir William Preece duplicates Edison's experiment, makes quantitative measurements and presents a paper to The Royal Society
1886	Eugen Goldstein observes 'canal' rays (German = kanalstrhlen}. So called because they were emitted through a hole in the cathode.
1890	A C Cossor Ltd was formed.
1891	George J Stoney suggests the name of electron for cathode ray particles
1896	Mallgnani Corp demonstrates the use of phosphorus gettering
1896	The British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd. was formed
1897	Sir Joseph Thomson discovers 'corpuscles' later called electrons
1897	Guglielmo Marconi sets-up in July 1897 the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited to commercially exploit his patents
1899	The British Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd was formed. This later became the Metropolitan-Vickers Co. Ltd, (Metrovick)
1900	James Dewar builds a cryosorption pump using activated charcoal and liquid air
1900	John Ambrose Fleming becomes scientific adviser to Marconi's company
1901	W C Roentgen wins Nobel prize for Physics for discovery of x-rays
1901	Gugliemo Marconi transmits signal from England to North America
1901	Richardson produces an equation for the emission of electrons from incandescent metal filaments
1901	Peter Cooper Hewitt develops the fluorescent lamp
1902	Georges Claude builds the first neon lamp
1902	E Weintraub develops the mercury arc lamp and rectifier
1902	Charles Proteus Steinmetz files a patent on mercury vapour lamp with halide salts to improve colour
1902	Peter Cooper Hewitt develops the mercury vapour lamp
1902	A C Cossor Ltd make the first British examples of Braun's CRT
1903	Harris J Ryan builds magnetic deflection CRT's
1904	Arthur Wehnelt publishes details of the oxide coated hot cathode CRT
1904	January 1904, Arthur Wehnelt patents a diode. The patent does not mention use for rectification of RF. The device is described in connection with charging accumulators
1904	October 1904, Sir Alexander Fleming produces rectification of RF in a valve. Valve history begins
1904	November 16 1904, Sir Alexander Fleming applies for a patent on the Oscillation Valve, later known as the Thermionic Valve and Fleming Diode.
1905	Philip Eduard Anton von Lenard wins Physics Nobel prize for Cathode Rays
1905	Wolfgang Gaede makes rotary mercury-sealed mechanical vacuum pump
1905	Albert Einstein explains the photoelectric effect
1906	W Voege and Rohn build the thermocouple vacuum gauge
1906	Lee de Forest invents the Audion (triode) as a sensitive detector
1906	Dieckmann, Glage, Rosing, Campbell-Swinton propose the use of the Braun tube to display television images
1908	Fleming replaces the carbon filament in his valve with a tungsten filament. This is before a process of making ductile tungsten had been devised
1909	Otto von Baeyer develops the ionisation vacuum gauge
1909	Robert Milikan measures the charge on the electron by the oil drop experiment
1909	Guglielmo Marconi and Carl F Braun win Physics Nobel prize for wireless telegraphy
1910	Pfeiffer Co produce the rotary oil-sealed mechanical vacuum pump
1910	Georges Claude demonstrates the neon lamp in public
1910	German telephone relay soft valve by Leiben-Reiz
1910	The early production Audion's looked like this
1911	Edwin H Armstrong invents the regenerative circuit
1911	'Doc' Herrold begins first radio broadcast service in San Jose California
1911	Henry Round of the Marconi company commences work on the design of a diode valve
1912	Wolfgang Gaede develops first theory and experiment on the molecular-drag vacuum pump
1912	Irving Langmuir produces gas filled incandescent lamp
1912	Lee de Forest makes the first valve amplifier
1912	H M Fassenden develops the Heterodyne receiver
1913	Wolfgang Gaede first diffusion pump using mercury
1913	A Dufour develops a high voltage, continuously pumped CRT and records directly onto photographic plates
1913	John Johnson and H J Van der Bijl develop the first commercial CRT. Western Electric 224-A
1913	Marconi receiver with Captain Round's C valve
1913	Captain Round's T transmitting valve developed
1913	Saul Dushman produces a 40 kV vacuum rectifier
1913	W D Coolidge produces a High Voltage X-ray tube
1914	ATT purchase licence from de Forest in August 1914
1914	Marconi files suit against Lee de Forest over triode
1914	AEG-Telefunken develops standardised valves for radio reception. EVN94 and EVN129
1915	Edison and Swan Co. produce Round valves for the Marconi Co.
1915	GE in America begin production of Pliotrons (triodes)
1915	In France the first hard vacuum triode was made. During the war over 100,000 were made by the companies Metal and Fotos
1915	Western Electric patents the indirectly heated cathode
1915	October 1915 Cunningham develops the tubular Audion
1916	Lee de Forest builds tubular Audions. See DV5
1916	The White soft valve produced. This has been developed by a British team working at the Cavendish Laboratory under the direction of J J Thomson
1916	Siemens and Halske in Germany develop the Type 'A' vacuum tube. About 50,000 are subsequently made
1916	A British version of the French valve was introduced. This was the R Type
1916	The British Thomson Huston Co. commence making R Type valves for military use
1916	GEC (Osram) commence making R Type valves for military use
1916	Irving Langmuir develops a high-speed diffusion pump and all-metal condensation pump
1916	The Edison and Swan United Electric Light Co. Ltd. changes name to Edison Swan Electric Co. Ltd.
1914	ATT purchase de Forest's patent for the triode
1917	The Metropolitan-Vickers Co commences production of the R Type
1917	July 3rd 1917, F Lowenstein's patent for negative bias
1919	October 1919. Marconi and GEC set up a joint company to manufacture valves. This was the Marconi-Osram Valve Co. Ltd. Later known as M-OV
1920	In September Capt. S R Mullard forms the Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd.
1920	Edwin Howard Armstrong invents the superhet receiver
1920	Irving Langmuir develops the thoriated tungsten filament
1920	Wolfgang Gaede develops the box pump
1921	Albert Einstein is awarded the physics Nobel prize for the photoelectric effect
1922	Mullard introduce the ORA general purpose valve
1922	Cossor introduce the P1 its first valve design post WW1. The electrode shapes avoided patents held by others
1922	On the 14th Novenber 1922 the BBC went on the air from 2LO in London
1923	Robert A Milikan is awarded the physics Nobel prize for measuring the charge on the electron
1923	Lee de Forest introduces DV/DL tubular Audions. See DV5
1923	M-OV introduce Captain Round's DEQ high impedance detector
1924	L T Jones and H G Tasker demonstrate electrostatic focusing of a CRT with magnetic deflection
1924	Lisa Meitner of Germany discovers the radiationless electron transition known as the Auger effect. Named after Pierre Auger of France who discovered the effect in 1926. See Augetron
1925	Bakelite based valves with the evacuation 'pip' concealed within were introduced
1926	Mullard introduce the first series of their PM valves. See The Azide Process
1926	Loewe vacuum 'integrated circuit' multi valves introduced
1926	Farnsworth image dissector produced
1926	M Siegbahn introduces the disk type of molecular drag pump
1927	Philo T Farnsworth demonstrates an all-electronic television system in San Francisco
1927	Kenjiro Takayanagi demonstrates a gas focused oscillograph CRT to display television images
1927	In the UK the S625 the world's first screened grid valve is produced
1927	May 1927, the landmark UX280 rectifier was introduced. This was subsequently manufactured for over 50 years
1927	Harold S Black discovers the benefits of negative feedback
1927	Albert W Hull builds the first Thyratron
1927	Friedrich Meyer, Hans J Spanner and Edmund Germer, in Germany, patent the high-pressure metal vapour UV and fluorescent lamp
1928	The B5 base was introduced
1928	The Mullard company introduce the first Pentode to the UK market
1929	Kenneth C D Hickman develops low vapour pressure synthetic oils
1929	Cecil R Burch produces a gas diffusion pump employing low vapour pressure oils
1929	Complete amateur radio station with one valve transmitter and one valve receiver
1929	Manfred von Ardenne demonstrates an all-electronic television in Berlin
1929	Farnsworth electron multiplier developed
1929	Vladimir K Zworykin files a patent on the kinescope. Zworykin later developed the Iconoscope camera tube
1930	The Mazda AC/Pen, introduced in 1930, was the first technically successful indirectly-heated power pentode capable of enough output to drive a moving-coil loudspeaker at good volume
1931	The external metalising of valves was introduced. Generally the metal was painted for protection. Red, Gold or Grey.
1931	National Union in the USA produce the first valves for car radios
1932	Alan B Du Mont starts to apply CRT's to television
1933	The B7 base was introduced
1933	Westinghouse introduce a mercury-arc rectifier, the Ignitron
1933	E H Armstrong announces frequency modulation
1934	The B9 base was introduced
1934	In the USA the 6.3 Volt filament is adopted as standard for both AC and DC filaments and heaters
1934	The GE 6E5 'Magic Eye' tuning indicator is introduced. RCA produce 6E5 in 1935
1934	The introduction of miniature Acorn valves for VHF. See 955
1934	In the UK M-OV introduced the Catkin range of valves with external anodes
1935	Wolfgang Gaede produces the gas ballast pump
1935	Kenneth C D Hickman produces a fractionating oil diffusion pump and associated oils
1935	RCA introduce the IO base with the launch of the metal tube valve 6L7
1935	RCA nine original valves appear in the RCA metal valve family
1935	Watson Watt demonstrates that aircraft reflect radio waves
1935	John Logie Baird demonstrates a 700 line high resolution television system
1935	Oskar Heil patents the field effect transistor. The device, however, did not work
1936	The world's first regular television broadcast by the BBC employing the EMI electronic system
1936	Mahn and Mecalf present a paper on velocity modulated valves. The key principle within the klystron
1937	At Stanford University the Varian brothers produce the first working Klystron
1937	C M Van Alta produces a diffusion pump with a pumping rate in excess of 100 litres per second
1937	L Malter demonstrates a multi-stage, self fractionating diffusion pump
1938	Mazda introduce the MO in the UK as an alternative to the International Octal
1939	RCA and Du Mont demonstrate Television at the NY World's Fair
1939	The Loctal or B8B was introduced in America
1939	The Philips introduce the all glass valve and with it the B9G base
1939	The first all-glass valve for use above 30 MHz was produced. The EF50 played a major part in early Radar
1939	The B7G all-glass valve base was introduced in America. Its introduction to the UK was in 1947
1940	February 21st 1940 John Randall and Harry Boot make operational the cavity magnetron at Birmingham University
1940	On September 6th 1940 Sir Henry Tizard takes the cavity magnetron to the USA. This is one of the most secret inventions of the war
1940	In September 1940 the first RDF system using a cavity magnetron is made in the UK
1940	In the USA the first all glass B7G 1.4 Volt miniature valve is introduced. This was the 1R5
1941	In America the 525 line system is approved by the FCC for commercial black and white broadcasting
1941	A UHF oscillator is made using Acorn valves. See 955
1941	The UK government introduce the common valve (CV) lists to streamline procurement and increase flexibility in sourcing the valves required by all branches of government especially the military
1942	Rudi Kompfner at Oxford University produces the first travelling wave tube
1943	Dr Tommy Flowers builds the first electronic computer for code breaking at Bletchley Park
1943	Percy Spencer of the Raytheon Co designs the laminated anode cavity magnetron which increased production rates
1945	Double triodes
1947	Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley demonstrate the first semiconductor amplifier
1947	B7G used on UK valves for the first time
1948	F C Williams describes the use of a CRT as a digital memory
1948	The B8A 'Rimlock' valve base is introduced
1948	B9A based all glass double triodes 12AU7, 12AX7 and 12AT7 are introduced
1949	Valve memory is introduced
1950	October 3rd 1950 the transistor is patented
1950	RCA demonstrate the shadow mask colour TV tube
1952	Ring getter with U-shaped cross section for valve manufacture is introduced
1953	B8A 'Rimlock' valves of all glass construction are introduced in the UK
1954	Mullard introduce the EL34 25 Watt dissipation audio output pentode
1954	Texas Instruments produces the first silicon transistor
1957	The Nixie display tubes are introduced
1958	Elmer Fridrich and Emmett Wily file a patent application on the tungsten halogen lamp
1958	Varian Associates introduce the 'modern' Vacsorb cryosorption pump
1958	The IMB 709 was introduced. This was the last major valve computer and featured magnetic core memory
1959	IBM 7090 introduced, this is the world's first all transistor computer
1959	The Varian Klystron VA842 introduced. This multi-cavity liquid-cooled Radar klystron is the largest documented production klystron
1960	Varian Associates Inc. produce the 1000 Litre per second Valcon pump
1960	Ross Aiken develops CRT for aircraft and 14 inch thin CRT
1960	The Nuvistor is developed. See 6CW4
1960	Ali Javan invents the Helium-Neon gas discharge laser
1961	C H Kruger and A H Shapiro unveil statistical theory of turbo-molecular pumping
1961	Varian Associates Inc produce very large sorption pumps for roughing large chambers
1961	Gilbert Reiling files a US patent for 'modern' metal-halogen incandescent lamp
1961	William R Wheeler introduces the UHF metal-gasket captured step-seal
1962	Fairchild Semiconductors produce the first integrated circuit
1962	Varian VA126 high power travelling wave tube introduced
1968	July 1968, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel
1968	A Y Cho et al develop molecular-beam epitaxy
1969	K H Mirgel produces the vertical uni-directional turbomolecular pump
1971	Intel introduce the 4004, the world's first microprocessor. This was a 4-bit device in a 16 pin DIL package.
1974	First oil-free vacuum pump
1975	Altair computer with microprocessor introduced for home use
1975	NASA Cryo-pumps for space simulation and semiconductor manufacture
1976	April 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple computer
1977	Mass production of valves ends in most Western European countries and the USA
1978	June 1978, the industry standard 8086 16-bit microprocessor is made. It has 29,000 transistors and a clock speed of 4.77 MHz. It was made in quantity on 4-inch silicon wafers
1986	Raytheon close the last major valve production line in the USA
1989	The 1.2 million transistor Intel 80486 is produced. The initial clock frequency is 25 MHz
1993	Intel introduce the Pentium processor. This is fabricated on 8-inch wafers. The 8-inch wafer process having been developed in April 1992

Here is a very good article about the development tube types in the 1920 and the birth of my Telefunken RE-604

 http://www.goodsoundclub.com/PDF/ProliferationTubeTypes.pdf

 Then, here is very cool later but still old advertising from Telefunken, there is certainly an interesting “class” in thie ad: