RCA logos and boxes

[hailteflon]

RCA tube boxes changed style when their logo changed from the circle-RCA to large RCA letters.

The dates on box flaps show:

(9-60) date on box with circle-RCA as the logo (probably the date when this style of box was introduced)

(4-69) date on white and red box with RCA letters as the logo---this box still says made in USA.

(4-70) date on the all red box with RCA letters as the logo----this box says that the country of origin is on the tube.

My question is this: Did RCA continue to use up old circle-RCA boxes after they introduced (evidently in 1969) the RCA letters logo? It seems like they would since it would be difficult to time running out of the old style boxes.

I have some distributor stock (many 5-packs, mostly TV and FM tubes) and the old style boxes have the new style logo on the tube. Some of the tubes in circle-RCA boxes have date code DJ (May 1971). Anyone know for sure that RCA did this? Is there info on the web that I can’t find? Thanks, Mark

[fernando_g]

I can offer an educated guess, having worked for a large corporation with thousands of products that required re-labeling when their logo was changed:

1) Lots of raw inventory (pre-printed cardboard).

2) Lots of work in process and/or finished goods with the old logo.

3) The time it takes to update all the documentation and engineering prints.

4) The time it takes to replace all the tooling used to print the stuff itself.

Of course, the products with lower margins and/or lower volume get replaced the last.

[hailteflon]

Yes, that is what is probably the way it was, before "just-in-time" manufacturing.

I am not sure about the date codes on the boxes or anything else, except the letter codes for the dates on the tubes. I found concrete information about that.

I googled the subject and found forum histories with replies from those who actually worked in the industry back then.

There were also "service publications" about most everything. Some of them appear on the web from time to time, but nothing about box dates. Lots of pictures, but no dates.

[radiotron]

Hi, yes, RCA did box tubes with the newer "letters only" logo in older style boxes, more info can be found in the book "Tube Lore" by Ludwell Sibley, well worth acquiring if one is a collector or just plain interested in tubes. Also contains a lot of useful short form info, especially for less common industrial tubes. I think Antique Electronic still have it for sale.

Jon

[hailteflon]

I have the book, but maybe it is too old. This is a 1996 edition, in case there are later ones.

Where in your tube lore is this info located?

[hailteflon]

Found it, page 173, under "what you see is what you get."

Thanks for the help, Mark

[HollowState]

I went to work for RCA service company in 1966 as a TV tech when I finished active duty with the army. The following year during one of our weekly (or was it monthly) meetings it was announced that the old long standing "meatball" logo was to be replaced with something more modern and up to date looking.

We had a fleet of panel trucks that were slowly being replaced while I was there. I remember getting a nice new truck with the "modern" name logo painted on it. I also remember that not all things changed over quickly, but it took quite a while for the meatball to be totally phased out. It was not uncommon at that time to see both logos intermixed on parts, labels and boxes. Remember, RCA is/was a huge company with operations all around the country and lots of inventory.

Victor

[hailteflon]

Very interesting.

So the new RCA logo was conceived/released in 1967, and was used in conjunction with the old one until 1969?

I see no sign of the new logo on tubes until around 1969 or early 1970.

There is a L. Sibley update on the web that gives the RCA date code chart.

[HollowState]

I found the date code chart you mentioned. Thanks for that idea. (printed it)
http://mysite.verizon.net/tubetronic...TE%20CODES.pdf

The announcement could have been early 1968. Hey, it's been 40 years since I was there.
What ever mixing of logos there was, I guess was only till extisting stocks were depleted.

Victor

[hailteflon]

OK, I just wanted to see about how far it was from 1966.

Every time I start going through these tubes I end up with more questions.

Servicmen kept old tubes, lots of them. An archived thread on another forum said that they exchenged them for new tubes. Not quite sure how that worked. The post was by a counterman at a distributor.

I'm looking for every clue that I can to find these not really new tubes.

There are five packs of apparently new tubes and every one of them is shot.

Some of it may have had to do with warranty/maintainence work. What I am trying to figure out is if there was an underground market for the year-old warranty pulls.