https://www.ebay.com/itm/174804354334?h ... SwSctgyQiG
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154494627078?h ... SwrjpgyQeE

Edit: Mods, please move to auctions. Placed in tubes by mistake.

Norman

Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc3RkT2288E&t=28s

Phil Weingarten made fake Tubes, Radios and Telegraph keys and then sold them as originals. This story was originally presented at the annual AWA conference in 2007 by AWA member Professor Tom Perera - W1TP. It was revised and expanded and this video shows Tom's presentation at the 2020 Zoomeeting of the New England Vintage Electronics Club NEVEC in 2020. https://www.nearc.net/

Len

I believe some reproductions were made by someone in southern California around 1960. Hence my inquiry.

Norman

Look closely at the color of the wire leads where they are sealed in the glass press. They are reddish. That color is characteristic of the oxide bond formed between the outer sheath of Dumet wire and the glass itself when it was molten. Dumet wire was invented in 1911, largely driven by the electric lamp industry and the high cost of platinum which previously had been used for the sealed leads. Given reasonable lead-times for Dumet wire to become available on the market in those days, the earliest spherical audions likely still used platinum in the press; platinum wire would appear silverish (the platinum does not form an oxide that bonds to the glass, thus no color). By the mid-teens it's possible that Deforest's operation had obtained Dumet for use in making spherical audions. It's hard to say, but they may be genuine.
R/ John

That is an amazing video. I was unaware of crooked Phil, but then again I don't collect that early.
I was really impressed that you could buy rolls of filament wire back in the day.

The plates have rounded corners - the ones I have seen photos of, have the corners nipped off at an angle.

Filament in at least one of those is wrapped with some wire which would be tantalum if it were a real, later vintage
hudson filament tube.

Corresponded with him once about a radio he had for sale, He said his whole collection was for sale just make an offer!