WECO VALVE, 1920's

Called the Weco (Western Electric Company) or Peanut Valve. Mullard also produced this valve. Ideal for battery equipment with a nominal 1Volt quarter amp heater, and only 17-45 volts anode.

Introduced by the Western Electric Company in 1919 and developed originally by Hendrik Johannes Van der Bijl as the 215A

The Mullard version complete with 4 pin adapter was advertised in The Meccano Magazine in 1924 for 30 shillings.

Your comments:

• My mother, a hairdresser, took 'war work' in a radio factory outside London in the early 1940's and due to her exceptional eyesight was chosen for the team which soldered and assembled 'peanut valves'. She liked to tell the story of a morale-boosting visit which they received from an officer of the Chindits who had been fighting the Japanese in Burma. In order to show the women workers that the radio components they were making were of such good quality and contributing to the war effort, he told a story about a donkey, who was carrying a radio set, which slipped and fell into a ravine. "I'm sorry to say, ladies, that when we found the poor donkey he was dead. But the radio was working perfectly!"
  .......... Tim Bull, Bristol, UK, 19th of May 2015
  
  
• This valve was the prototype VT-3 which had greatly reduced filament power consumption. It was intended for use in portable trench radios during WW1. However, the war ended before it went into production. Hendrik van der Bijl continued developing it into the type N (215) or "peanut tube". This may well be the first step into amplifier miniaturization which half-a-century later became an extremely important aspect during the development of the transistor and IC's.
  .......... Piet Human, Johannesburg, South Africa, 6th of June 2013
  
  

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