1960's Philbrick Catalog

[Joe Sousa]

A couple of months ago I bought this Philbrick catalog on Ebay.
Philbrick was founded in 1952 and pioneered the use of Operational
Amplifiers in analog computers, and later, in more general
applications.

I scanned the catalog to share and promote the history of Philbrick.
I stored the 5MBytes of the 16 pages of scans in the following free
photo storage site:

http://www.picturecd.com/system/view.cgi?user=iinv
nt&session=1079818777.27719&m=a

Please feel free to share this link.

As has also previously been mentioned in this group, there is also a
Philbrick Applications Manual on line at Analog Devices.

http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/pot/potpourri.html

I personally own three K2-XA, one K2-P and one K2-W amplifier. I have
tested all of these, except for the K2-P, which I have not gotten
around to testing. One of the K2-XA had a shorted/burned-out front end
tail current 330k resistor that ended up weakening one of the 12ax7a
triodes. I replaced the resistor and the 12ax7a and now it works well.
I easily get 250V p-p triangle waves out of the K2-XA with +/-300V
supplies.

Any thoughts on 12AX7A use in OPAMP front ends? Which manufacturers
are better? and why? noise? drift? etc.

Joe Sousa

 

[Winfield Hill]

Joe Sousa wrote...

A couple of months ago I bought this Philbrick catalog on Ebay.
Philbrick was founded in 1952 and pioneered the use of Operational
Amplifiers in analog computers, and later, in more general
applications.

I scanned the catalog to share and promote the history of Philbrick.
I stored the 5MBytes of the 16 pages of scans in the following free
photo storage site:

http://www.picturecd.com/system/view.cgi?user=iinv nt
&session=1079818777.27719&m=a

Please feel free to share this link.

Very nice!! Good work.
But page 7 is repeated twice and page 8 is missing. :&gt

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

 

[Guy Macon]

Joe Sousa <JLRMSousa@Comcast.net> says...

Any thoughts on 12AX7A use in OPAMP front ends? Which manufacturers
are better? and why? noise? drift? etc.

I reccomend the Ruby Tubes 12AX7A (ECC83) Tesla(JJ) High Grade
Preamp tube. Plate current and transconductance are labeled on
the tube, which makes it a lot easier for the vendor to sell you
well-matched sets. I have heard good things about the Elecro-
Harmonix.

I suggest that you ask this question in the Bottlehead Forum
at [ http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/bottlehead/bbs.html ].
You might have to explain to some of the participants what an
operational amplifier is and which tube parameters are important
to you, but they have a wealth of knowledge and have made extensive
measurements of various tubes.

References:

http://www.thetubestore.com/ehx12ax7.html
http://www.thetubestore.com/tesla12ax7.html
http://www.thetubestore.com/12ax7.html
http://www.turnstyle.com/nsc/catalog.asp
http://www.thetubestore.com/bymanufacturer.html
http://www.thetubestore.com/janphilips.html
http://scobro.150m.com/Rivera/TubeResources.htm
http://www.watfordvalves.com/testreports.htm


--
Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager for hire.
Remember Doc Brown from the _Back to the Future_ movies? Do you
have an "impossible" engineering project that only someone like
Doc Brown can solve? My resume is at http://www.guymacon.com/

 

[Joe Sousa]

Winfield Hill <Winfield_member@newsguy.com> wrote in message news:<c3qdmb02g8a@drn.newsguy.com>...

Joe Sousa wrote...

A couple of months ago I bought this Philbrick catalog on Ebay.
Philbrick was founded in 1952 and pioneered the use of Operational
Amplifiers in analog computers, and later, in more general
applications.

I scanned the catalog to share and promote the history of Philbrick.
I stored the 5MBytes of the 16 pages of scans in the following free
photo storage site:

http://www.picturecd.com/system/view.cgi?user=iinv nt
&session=1079818777.27719&m=a

Please feel free to share this link.

Very nice!! Good work.
But page 7 is repeated twice and page 8 is missing. :&gt

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

Thanks for the feedback. The PictureCD has been down. I will correct
page 8 as soon as possible.
Joe

 

[Joe Sousa]

Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote in message news:<F4KdnQIg4YquufzdRVn-hg@speakeasy.net>...

Joe Sousa <JLRMSousa@Comcast.net> says...

Any thoughts on 12AX7A use in OPAMP front ends? Which manufacturers
are better? and why? noise? drift? etc.

I reccomend the Ruby Tubes 12AX7A (ECC83) Tesla(JJ) High Grade
Preamp tube. Plate current and transconductance are labeled on
the tube, which makes it a lot easier for the vendor to sell you
well-matched sets. I have heard good things about the Elecro-
Harmonix.

I suggest that you ask this question in the Bottlehead Forum
at [ http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/bottlehead/bbs.html ].
You might have to explain to some of the participants what an
operational amplifier is and which tube parameters are important
to you, but they have a wealth of knowledge and have made extensive
measurements of various tubes.

References:

http://www.thetubestore.com/ehx12ax7.html
http://www.thetubestore.com/tesla12ax7.html
http://www.thetubestore.com/12ax7.html
http://www.turnstyle.com/nsc/catalog.asp
http://www.thetubestore.com/bymanufacturer.html
http://www.thetubestore.com/janphilips.html
http://scobro.150m.com/Rivera/TubeResources.htm
http://www.watfordvalves.com/testreports.htm

Guy, thanks for the bounty of references. I will look through them.
Tubes have the reputation of having even more colorful personalities
than solid state devices.

By the way, just yesterday I bought a copy of "A Palimpsest on the
Analog art" edited by Henry Paynter and published by George A
Philbrick Researches, in the 1950's. I paid about $40 for this copy at
Alibris.com, and they had a couple more, but more expensive.

I also have a good collection of schematic diagrams, data sheets and a
few issues of the Lightning Empiricist, the Philbrick house organ. I
am trying to increase my collection of Philbrick materials and other
contemporary materials on ebay. Let me know if you need anything in
particular. I got most of what I have by coping it from a kind
co-worker.

I am trying to increase my collection of Philbrick materials and other
contemporary materials on ebay.

Asside from the excelent presentation always given in Philbrick
publications, they were always written with the most delightful wit.
These writings move with amazing grace from intuitive concepts, to
equations and to practical implementations, all the while never
forgetting some good natured humor and classy wit.

Joe

 

[Joe Sousa]

Winfield Hill <Winfield_member@newsguy.com> wrote in message news:<c3uc8e026i7@drn.newsguy.com>...

Joe Sousa wrote...

Winfield wrote ...

Very nice!! Good work.
But page 7 is repeated twice and page 8 is missing.

Thanks for the feedback. The PictureCD has been down.
I will correct page 8 as soon as possible.

You may have to recopy the URL and repost it, they seem
to have made changes to their database or something.

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

Hello Winfield,

You are right, just yesterday, the www.photodex.com site where I
posted the scans, shut down for maintenance and lost my uploads. I
uploaded the 16 scans again today and corrected the missing page 8
that you spotted. A better way to access the scans is to go to
WWW.PHOTODEX.COM and click "Browse Member" and type in my member name
as IINVNT. You will then see the Philbrick album.

I tried sending you the missing page directly, but I didn't use the
right email address (Winfield_member@newsguy.com) and it bounced. I
have now found your web site, and was absolutelly thrilled to find out
that you are THE Hill of Horowitz and Hill - the Art of Electronics! I
have owned a copy of your book for years and lend it a lot the the
younger engineers. I also use it as an occasional reference.

By the way, I just recently, I copied about 3 inches of Philbrick
printed material, including the famous "A Palimpsest on the electronic
art", from a co-worker, and have been delighting in reading through
it! The technical presentation is excellent and the classy, the witty
writting, a delight.
Philbrick materials always show such grace and ease moving from
equations to practical implementations. The writtings also show a
level of relaxed intelectual modesty that is unusual in modern
technical writing that tends to be dead serious, or reads like
advertising copy.

I have a number of Philbrick opamp schematics in this collection. Just
let me know if you need one. But, I don't have schematics for the SK2
opamp.

Best regards,

Joe