On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:47:52 -0400, hapticz wrote:

and here we have a fine group i shall dub "the mu men" or "the mu-see-ums"
;-))

solid, easy to get along with and sensible, no foolishness with p-layer
punch thru or bonding failures!

and tubes may actually be repaired too, nothing like those flimsy silicon
flakes!

I've actually seen _tubes_ repaired. They were big metal-ceramic
transmitting tubes, like 3CX15000Z. A little company in Louisiana (there
must be a lot of them, scattered about) cuts a dead tube open on a lathe
and installs a fresh cathode assembly, which includes a copper tube to
connect to the vacuum pump. They also have glassblower's lathes for
handling the old tubes, but I don't think any of those are still in
service.