• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

WE tube data sheets missing from Franks archive

Normally you'd drop the WE and just search by type number. You'll find many of the clones of WE tubes from STC, Raytheon, LM Erickson to name just a few, but nothing from Western Electric. I was not able to find the 437 using this ruse.

Apparently documentation abandoned by the original manufacturer long ago is now claimed as intellectual property by the current rights holder of the service and trademarks, and this despite the utter unlikelihood of their ever making any of these types again.

I am not sure what the harm is here...
 
A question to ask is:

Can you go to the present day Western Electric tube site, and find the data sheets there?

If I wanted someone to purchase my companies current offerings, I just might arrange it that way.

Other manufacturers have created some new "Western Electric" tubes have been "improved" by changing them into a whole new tube (more of the following: plate dissipation, plate voltage, plate current, filament current, etc.).
That is OK, but do not call it by the WE part number, or even part of that number.

And, someone who copies a schematic that uses the new "improved" version tube (*),
will be mad at Western Electric when they put a real Western Electric tube in there, and it burns out the tube.

There are many reasons to protect intellectual property.
Having something like the above (*) destroy your reputation is reason enough.

If you have never run your own business, you might not understand.

Just my opinion.

Just for those who are curious, the 437A data sheet is at the Live, Present Day, Western Electric web page.
Take a look, you can find that data sheet, and can find a lot of other very interesting things there too.
 
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I owned and operated a very small regional audio design and small run audio business so I get it. I'm an R&D engineer designing consumer electronics for a living.

I'm not aware of any improved versions of any of the tube types discussed here. These types are all late and were developed at the pinnacle of tube technology many decades ago. They are unlikely to be made again, although I don't know enough to know that for sure. The types they make while amongst my favorites are comparatively primitive triodes and rectifiers.

The point about driving traffic to their website is valid, as would be concerns about maintaining control over one's trade and service marks. Could be nothing more than a suggestion by their legal team to do so. The data sheets are freely available on their website probably for as long as they remain a viable business entity.