The Vacuum Tube Museum of SPINNER GmbH

This unique private museum devoted to the history of the vacuum tube is only rarely opened to the public. It grew out of a collection amassed by Dr. Georg Spinner, the engineer who founded SPINNER GmbH, which has specialized in radio frequency equipment.

Spanning about 200 square meters, it contains hundreds of legacy amplifier and oscillator tubes that were once used for a wide range of applications in electrical, communications and medical technology.

The SPINNER vacuum tube museum contains hundreds of amplifier and oscillator tubes

The exhibits range in size from tiny tubes just a few millimeters across for radio receivers all the way to huge transmission tubes over a meter long. The highlight of the collection is a 2.7-meter-long oscillator-type gyrotron tube for heating plasmas in nuclear fusion research experiments; it was capable of outputting over 0.6 MW (600,000 watts) at 140 GHz (140 000 000 000 Hertz).

In return for a small donation to a charitable cause, visitors can acquire a lovely, lavishly illustrated 200-page book in which Dr. Spinner recounts the history of the vacuum tube (German only).