Tung-Sol was an American manufacturer of electronics, mainly

lamps Lamp, Lamps or LAMP may refer to: Lighting * Oil lamp, using an oil-based fuel source * Kerosene lamp, using kerosene as a fuel * Electric lamp, or light bulb, a replaceable component that produces light from electricity * Light fixture, or ligh ...

and

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

s.The History of Tung-Sol
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History

Tung-Sol was founded as Tung-Sol Lamp Works Inc. in Newark,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

in 1907. Their early products were mainly geared towards the automotive market and included

headlamp A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term f ...

s, pilot lights, and

flashlight A flashlight ( US, Canada) or torch ( UK, Australia) is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these have been displaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since th ...

bulbs. The trade name was formed from the first syllable of "tungsten" and the Latin word "sol" meaning sun. The company entered the electronics field in the 1920s. In time they established themselves as leaders in the development and production of vacuum tubes, with their main competition including

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westin ...

and Sylvania. By 1951, they began doing business as Tung-Sol Electric Inc. Soon after, they were acquired by Wagner Electric, which itself merged into Studebaker-Worthington in 1967. Tung-Sol was also active in the semiconductor industry, with its transistors being easily recognizable by their sky blue color. Tung-Sol was privately held and run like a laboratory. This gave Tung-Sol vacuum tubes a reputation of having some of the best

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...

and chemistry in actual production. The Tung-Sol brand name is now owned by the New Sensor Corporation, the same company that owns the brands Sovtek and

Electro-Harmonix Electro-Harmonix (also commonly referred to as EHX) is a New York City-based company that makes electronic audio processors and sells rebranded vacuum tubes. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. It is best known for a series of g ...

.The New Sensor Corporation
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Products

Tung-Sol developed the first successful car

headlight A headlamp is a lamp (electrical component), lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage (language), usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the ...

in 1907, followed in 1913 by a single bulb two filament high and low beam headlight. Other Tung-Sol inventions included the flashing

turn signal The lighting system of a motor vehicle consists of lighting and signalling devices mounted to or integrated into the front, rear, sides, and in some cases the top of a motor vehicle. They illuminate the road ahead for the driver and increase th ...

. Tung-Sol created the 6550

, a specialized Hi-Fi audio tube in 1954.

6550

The 6550 is a beam tetrode vacuum tube introduced by Tung-Sol in 1954 for application as an audio frequency power amplifier. Based on the 6L6 vacuum tube, the 6550 was designed to have higher output power and better stability. It operates with a maximum

plate voltage In vacuum tube technology, HT or high tension describes the main power supply to the circuit, which produces the current between anode and cathode. It is also known as the plate supply or voltage, B battery supply, or simply labeled ->B on circuit ...

of 600VDC, a screen voltage of 400VDC, and plate dissipation of 35 watts. The KT88, KT90, and 6550, although not identical, are often interchangeable, dependent on external circuit parameters. The 6550's glass envelope was originally wider in the middle than at the top and bottom, but a straight-sided design was later introduced by GE and

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

. The 6550 continues to be manufactured in the 21st century, as it is used by companies like Marshall and

Ampeg Ampeg is a manufacturer best known for its bass amplifiers. Originally established in 1946 in Linden, New Jersey by Everett Hull and Stanley Michaels as "Michael-Hull Electronic Labs," today Ampeg is part of the Yamaha Guitar Group. Although ...

in amplifiers for electric guitar and for bass, and in certain Leslie speaker systems.

References

External links

Reviews of KT88 tubes.

Complete 1948 Technical Data Book (vacuum tube manual)
-- 28 MB PDF, 1028 pages {{Commons category, Tung-Sol, position=left Electronics companies established in 1907 Incandescent light bulbs Electronics companies of the United States Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States 1907 establishments in New Jersey Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey