[turretslug]

The Rimlock valve types always struck me as having notably neat, short and precise interlinking connections between base and electrode assembly, whereas 7- and 9-pin miniatures generally seem to have longer interconnects with more in the way of interlink bends and swan-necks- but this latter observation could make some sense in the context of a structure that necessarily attained much higher temperature during base-to-envelope welding (as opposed to the use of frit which could be described as analogous to soldering in the way that the joint is made with a lower-melting point material!) and needed to be more resistant to heat distortion and have more "give". I'm sure there has been the occasional mention/picture on here in the past of B9a types with frit-jointed bases that sound like the early types mentioned above.

Comparing the construction of, say, an ECH42 to the previous-generation ECH35, they are something of a revelation in precision and miniaturisation and must have represented considerable investment in production jigs and tooling.