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RE: Electrical Component Basics: The Electromechanical Relay
Strange device - Unless there's a coil in there I don't think its a relay because I don't see a reason to do so in a vacuum. Maybe some kind of tetrode?
The only thing similar device I could find online is a heat actuated relay, so like a bimetallic strip inside. Note there is no getter in this tube, which means no requirement for a vacuum. They used to flash Caesium or Barium metal onto the inside to collect impurities/moisture. Thanks for having a look @proteus-h
Actually that would make sense if it was heat activated! The vacuum would prevent any convection/conduction so the metal would heat up to much higher temperatures with only EM radiation as a way to remove heat from the strip. That would make it way easier to heat the device up enough for thermal expansion to activate the relay.
Pretty cool if that's the case, I've never heard of a device like this I know some temperature gauges use this principle, but I've never seen a relay like that prior to now. It's possible that they left out the getter and it's just a low vacuum, which would work fine for something like this.