This DVD-ROM contains high-quality scans (400 lpi) of 37 seminal textbooks from many of the principal players in the development of vacuum-tube electronics and radio in the pre-WWII through the cold-war era. The textbooks from Langford-Smith, Henney, Sturley, Arguimbau, Terman, and the other important leaders in the early days of radio and television. These books are technical and are best understood with some familiarity with mathematics. These were the textbooks used in engineering schools throughout this time period. Each of the volumes is indexed for full-text search, and there is a global index across all the volumes. You could search for "dynatron" and find every reference in every volume. There are a number of journal articles (IRE, IEEE, BSTJ, and more) that are included on the disc but not specifically listed here, and some supplementary textbooks as well. Shipping is free for CONUS, $13 for foreign. Foreign buyers should contact me for the possibility of a shipping refund. As I have edited every page of every manual to remove blemishes and scanning problems, the images in these files  differ from the original manuals. My changes are all copyright 2004-2020. Permission is given for personal, educational, and research use only.

Applied Electronics - 1943 - by "Members of the Staff of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology", 800p. Subtitle is "A FIRST COURSE IN ELECTRONICS, ELECTRON TUBES, AND ASSOCIATED CIRCUITS". Chapters include "Electrical Conduction through Vacuum, Gases and Vapors", "High Vacuum Electron Tubes", "Cascade Amplifiers, Class A2"

Arguimbau - Vacuum-Tube Circuits - 1948 - 670p - A course in building radios and televisions using vacuum tubes - includes video amplifiers, power amplifiers, oscillators, amplitude modulation, tuned amplifiers and more.

Arguimbau - Vacuum-Tube Circuits and Transistors - 1956 - 665p, same as above but introduces simple transistor circuits.

Brainerd Koehler Reich Woodruff - Ultra-High-Frequency Techniques - 1942 - 587p. In 1942, the idea of UHF vacuum-tube circuits would be very new and not entirely understood. This book appears to be hastily written by MIT engineers with their experience with these new circuit techniques.

Cauer - Synthesis of Linear Communication Networks 1958 - 900p - this is an English translation of Cauer's life work, which was the image parameter method of network synthesis.

Circular C-74 - 1924 - 340p - This is the fundamental publication by the National Bureau of Standards on calculations and measurements to help the new radio industry to understand how to build and test radio equipment from antennas to generators and receivers.

Cruft - Electronic Circuits and Tubes - 1947 - 1000p - by the "Electronics Training Staff of the Cruft Laboratory at Harvard University". Chapters include circuit elements, transients, filters, Fourier analysis, multielement tubes, amplifiers class A and class B and much more.

Dow - Fundamentals of Engineering Electronics - 1937 - 600p - chapters include Electron Ballistics, cathode rays, harmonics, class B and push-pull amplifiers and much more.

Eastman - Fundamentals of Vacuum Tubes - 1941 - 600p - this book is entirely on vacuum tubes. Chapters include high-vacuum thermionic tubes, phototubes, cathode-ray tubes, applications and circuits.

Edson - Vacuum-Tube Oscillators - 1953 - 490p - chapters include transient behavior of linear systems, nonlinear oscillations, feedback systems, resonators, linear oscillators, operation at high power-levels, relaxation oscillators, crystal-controlled oscillators.

Gewartowski Watson - Principles of Electron Tubes - 1945 - 670p - This is designed as a graduate-level course in tubes, both gaseous and vacuum - Gauss's Law, Poisson's and Laplace's equations, Richardson-Dushman Equation, Thermionic Emission Energies, Electric Lenses, magnetrons, Townsend discharge and breakdown.

Goldman - Frequency Analysis Modulation and Noise - 1948 - 450p - This is a graduate-level course in noise and frequency effects - Flicker effect, Fourier analysis, and much more.

Gray Graham - Radio Transmitters - 1961 - 480p - General review of the state of radio transmitters of the period, including FM and SSB.

Harper - Rhombic Antenna Design - 130p - This is the seminal work on Rhombic antennas. This book was responsible for ITT replacing all their transcontinental antenna farms with rhombic designs. These radio stations were the core of international communication until undersea cables and satellite communication took over those roles.

Henneberry - The Single Sideband Handbook - 1964 - 230p - Complete explanation of the new-fangled SSB modulation technique - transmitter and receiver techniques for SSB.

Henney - Electron Tubes in Industry - 1937 - 550p - review of tubes including gaseous, high-vacuum, cathode-ray and more

ITT Reference Data for Radio Engineers - Fourth Edition - 1949 - 1100p. This is a very complete compilation of data in the slide-rule era. These data were essential to any radio design in the era before computers. Chapters include modulation, waveguides, antennas, broadcasting, radar fundamentals, probability and statistics, mathematical formulas.

Johnson - Transmission Lines and Networks - 1960 - 380p - lines with reflections, two-conductor lines, radio-frequency lines, power lines.

King Mimno Wing - Transmission Lines Antennas and Wave Guides - 1945 - impedance matching, transmission-line equations, antennas, electromagnetic theory

Klystron Technical Manual - 90p by Sperry, Inc. This concise book is the first description that I actually understood klystron oscillators and the whole system of velocity-modulation. Brilliant.

Koller - The Physics of Electron Tubes - 1937 - 250p - this is probably the most technical of the tube books in this collection, including primary and secondary emmisions, the dynatron, getters and clean-up of gasses, and much more.

Langford-Smith - Radiotron Designer's Handbook - 1952 - 1500p - this is the "magnum opus" of radio electronics. It is a collection of articles by experts on each of the most important subjects in radio and vacuum-tube design. This one is unusual in that it goes beyond amplifiers and into microphones and loudspeakers as well. It is absolutely comprehensive in covering all aspects of radio communication and design in one (large) volume.

Lauer Brown - Radio Engineering Principles - 1928.pdf
Millman Seely - Electronics - 1941.pdf
Noise - Van der Ziel.pdf
Reich - Theory and Applications of Electron Tubes - 1939.pdf

Seely - Electron-Tube Circuits - 1950 - 540p - chapters include vacuum tubes as circuit elements, tuned power amplifiers, amplitude modulation
Seeley - Electron-Tube Circuits - Answers to Problems

Slurzberg Osterheld - Essentials of Radio - 1948.pdf
Spangenberg - Vacuum Tubes - 1948.pdf
Sturley - Radio Receiver Design Part I - 1953.pdf
Sturley - Radio Receiver Design Part II - 1949.pdf


Terman - Measurements in Radio Engineering - 1935, 400p. This one is somewhat misleadingly named. It reviews the basics of circuits and circuit elements (resistors, capacitors, inductors, vacuum tubes), then goes through all applications of these elements and how to measure and calibrate their performance. Radio frequency and audio frequency amplifiers, oscillators, field-strength meters, "oscillographic" methods (before you could just buy an oscilloscope), voltage and current measurement - DC, AC and radio frequencies.

Terman - Fundamentals of Radio - 1938, 450p. This is a stage-by-stage description on the design of radio transmitters, receivers, and antenna design and coupling. This state-of-the-art (for 1938) training was for working engineers about how to solve actual problems in radio design. Recall that radio use was exploding during this era. It was common for families to crowd around the radio every evening to listen to music, radio drama, or news. This was the "youtube" of the era. An engineer of that era could not be said to be skilled without a good working knowledge of radio design.

Terman - Radio Engineer's Handbook - 1943, over 1000p. Before the days of computers, the difficult calculations involved in radio/electronics design had to be done by hand and slide-rule. Terman goes through the calculations at all levels with abundant tables and graphs that allow the designer to pick off component values just by using a straight-edge and a graph. Many very complex calculations are reduced to manageable pieces. Even in this modern age of advanced computation, we can get a lot of insight by studying the thought process of the engineers of the era. They really had to understand what they were doing so as to avoid performing useless or redundant computations.

Terman - Radio Engineering - 1947, 950p. I think Terman felt that this volume summed up his approach to radio design. It incorporates all the clever observations and techniques expounded over his books of the previous 12 years. I still marvel at the hand-drawn graphs and charts, all drawn without computer printers.

Shipping is free for CONUS, $13 for foreign.