“Tubular, Man!” I’m not quite sure what the expression meant, but I think it was a phrase from Hippydom.Anything but a Hippie, good friend Al Setera has gone tubular – vacuum tubular!
Last winter, Al showed me a collection of tubes and a marvelous old “Test-O-Matic” tube checker that he had acquired some years ago. If it had been placed inside of the local hardware store, I’d have thought I’d been “transported” to the 1950s. That was when all our electronic gadgets (radios, the few television sets around, and a declining number of phonographs) used vacuum tubes to make them work.
When I first peered at Al’s unit, my mouth watered. When he turned on its light, I started to shiver. When he opened the drawers to the unit, I felt all was right with the world – it was making sense. I was transported to an era when we understood a little bit more about how things work.
I don’t recall all the details about how Al happened upon this collector’s item, but I do know the testers and tubes once belonged to a ham radio operator in Iowa who is now deceased. The ham operator's son didn't want to deal with it, and Al, who was a friend of the family, ended up with the items. I was caught off guard when Al said he’d like to find a new owner for them. Once I reconciled myself to the reality that Karen would sooner give up her bear collection (ain’t gonna happen in this lifetime) than let me populate my radio room with vacuum devices that don’t pick up dust from the carpet, I agreed to help Al find a new home for these items.
The tube tester is an original Shell “Test-O-Matic” Model S-10, probably built out on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn back in the 1950s. It looks just like the ones that used to adorn hardware stores, grocery stores, and other retail businesses who understood that the world ran on electrons!
If this thing of beauty were not enough, Al told me that he had tubes - lots of tubes - that he’s willing to dispose of.
And then there’s the Mercury portable tube tester – it’s a Model 1100 – manufactured by Mercury Electronics Corporation in Mineola, New York. It’s one of those handy “kit”-type units that folds together in a carrying case that was all the rage for home radio repairmen and amateurs who couldn’t live without them.I keep thinking Al may change his mind about selling these collector’s items. Just as I keep hoping Karen may relent on space in our basement. Fat chances both! So, until then, I’ve committed to fielding any e-mails from folks who might be interested in relieving Al of his burden. Salvos of interest should be aimed at: galeymedia@gmail.com
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