Why are tubes called "valves" but transistors aren't?

[rayma]

There's only one kind of physics (that works).
Although the universe must behave according to logic, we don't know which logic.
So any conjecture, found by any method, can be entertained, and undergo confirmation or refutation.

 

[tonyEE]

Thomas Kuhn... Ludwig Wittgenstein

Should be required reading for anyone learning/practicing Science and anyone who wants to understand/discuss Science.

I also got a little book about "Ancient Science"... it's really neat. Talks about how the ancients viewed Science and their methods.

 

[lcsaszar]

I imagine if transistor came first and in same cultural space as the original valve, it would be a valve of some sort too...

Actually the first transistors were mounted in glass tubes.

 

[rayma]

First working transistor, a Germanium point contact type.

 

[russc]

Torch comes from one of those fires on a stick.
As used to light the Olympic flame or light Indiana Jones through the cave full of snakes.
The forerunner of the battery / LED device we know and love today.

 

[rayma]

Of course, but even the British don't call the automobile a "horse", although some do call it a "wagon".

 

[Galu]

Of course, but even the British don't call the automobile a "horse", although some do call it a "wagon".

I regard station wagon (also wagon) to be US nomenclature.

In the UK we say estate car (also estate).

 

[Galu]

Torch comes from one of those fires on a stick.

The word torch has a long etymology, whereas I read that the word flashlight was first applied to a handheld, pocket-sized electric illumination device by the Americans in 1905. https://www.etymonline.com/word/Torch

 

[egellings]

As I understand it, tubes and transistors do the same job, tubes are just more complicated. I understand why one might call a tube a "valve", but then isn't the term equally applicable to a transistor? Yet I see valve used to uniquely describe a vacuum tube. Is it just history and tradition?

I've heard the term "crystal triode" uses to denote a transistor.

 

[rayma]

More commonly "solid-state tube".

 

[lcsaszar]

Torch comes from one of those fires on a stick.
As used to light the Olympic flame or light Indiana Jones through the cave full of snakes.
The forerunner of the battery / LED device we know and love today.

It always causes me laugh when I hear in a film dubbed to Hungarian; "turn on the torch" translated to "fáklya" which is the burning stick once used in ancient castles, the olympic flame, etc.