Audion_WSA

The WSA Audion was developed by Greenleaf W Pickard, chief engineer of the Wireless Specialty Apparatus Co in 1917. It was to be an improved equivalent of the de Forest Audion. In 1917 approximately 100 of these tubes were made and submitted to Wireless Station NAI at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on a contract bid for test and evaluation. The contract did not materialise and most of the tubes were either lost, broken or stolen,

The Audion was gold in colour (from the gettering) and it had an S14 (45 mm) diameter bulb. The plate and grid leads were at the top and the filament leads from the E12 base. The grid was an oval strip of metal with several holes punched in it to permit the electron stream to pass through. The plate was also a strip of metal, oval in shape and almost completely enclosing the grid. Two filaments were available and in case one burned out, the other could be used. The Audion screwed into an E12 candleabra socket mounted on the front of a panel or box. The plate and grid leads were connected to binding posts  below the tube. A porcelain rheostat adjusted the filament voltage to about 4 volts. This tube was a bit "cranky" in peration, but it did bring in signals quite well in the evening hours.

Credit for this information is given to Leo Gibbs, Ed Raser, Frank Atlee and Lauren Peckham (all deceased) and the article in the AWA Fact Tube Fact Sheet Vol 3, No 3, August 1978 

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