weird tube sort of thing

Looks like a Dreidel to me >:-} ...Jim Thompson

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I'd suggest that the pinched tube was used to first evacuate the unit and/or then to insert a gas mixture into it. It could then become a conductive element. (It may also have served during glass blowing?) No idea what it looks inside, though -- no pictures. I have only wild guesses right now.

Jon

Yup, that's my guess, too.

Jon

No it is not a waveguide gas discharge T/R switch. I have seen those and this does not match (no waveguide flanges).

?-)

Could be a disc-seal diode. Maybe even triode (I can't make out how many connections).

The venerable Rohde & Schwarz Polyskop SWOB 1 used a similar-looking triode in its cavity oscillator.

--- Since what seems to be a tubulation is crimped, it may have been used to suck down the tube and then to backfill it with???

Also, since it's metal, and not glass, it's probably an electrode.

There's no evidence of it ever having been connected to anything, and no evidence of wear on the gold surfaces, so I'd guess the tube is unused.

The glass(?)disk with the numbering hints at its being a very high voltage insulator separating the two gold electrodes by introducing a long air gap between them. That is, if the two gold areas are really electrodes.

Is the tube in your possession?

Can you make a few simple continuity and/or resistance checks to determine what's connected to what and what isn't?

Also, can you post some dimensions?

My guess is that it's either a coax center conductor TR switch or a compact hydrogen thyratron.

-- JF

It doesn't seem to have filament connections, although it could be a diode. I'm guessing it's a waveguide thing and the top connection is the keep-alive. Maybe a high-current gas discharge triggered spark-gap sort of thing?

I should have ohm'd things and such.

Yes. I was cleaning up my junk cubby downstairs and found it in a dusty box. I must have picked it up a a flea market long ago.

I'll do that next week.

Ditto. It's about an inch in diameter.

Yeah, it could be some sort of high current closing switch, and the