With all this tubed equipment at this website, these come in handy:
With this emissions tester, I found a quick and dirty way to screen large piles of tubes. Separate them by heater voltage, and set the heater voltage selection accordingly. Set the sensitivity control to around 35. After the tube warms up, rotate the selector switch thru all positions, and you should find the cathodes or grids or plates. Most regular tubes should make a good reading. Tubes that seem weak should be more carefully tested later.


The Weston VOM was my father's favorite meter for tube work.



A real antique power outlet. Combination tandem and parallel slots. The parallel slots accept modern non-polarized line cords. The tandem slots would accept a 250V 15A plug if you removed its ground prong. I even found a Hubble tandem plug without ground of post-war vintage that fits. Appears that back in the early days of electricity, there were two different kinds of 120VAC plugs, parallel and tandem. And this outlet was made to support both. No UL seal of approval on the antique power outlet, UL may not have existed a hundred + years ago. A more modern tandem/parallel outlet is also pictured, alongside the antique and a modern NEMA 6-15 250V 15A outlet. The tandem plug will fit the NEMA 6-15 outlet, but if the tandem plug feeds a 120V load, the load will blow up!

More antique outlets, these, above right, use the same pin pattern used in Australia. ↟ ➹ And this one below as well. ⤵
Other antiques:

Standard equipment in private eye offices in vintage movies:

I heard that ceramic dishes like this were given out at those vintage movies. My grandmother had a set like these.

Back in around 1950, here is my grandma over at a friend's place. Note the Admiral on the table.

And on the right is Christmas 1951 at my grandparents' house. Note the Philco TV left of the tree.

My mom and grandmom preparing Thanksgiving dinner in grandma's kitchen, near the Admiral AA5.