Originally Posted By: PastorVon

But, the English electronic world did not standardize "tube" in naming vacuum tubes. I do not know how universal the use of "tube" was -- it may have only been American. While I cannot recall right now the term that the British used, however, it was more descriptive of the function of vacuum tubes than of their appearance. And, in some contexts the same British term was used to refer to a transistor.


The British term was/is valve. I don't know if they extended the term to transistors but I bet a little googling will tell us.

Wikipedia doesn't seem to think that the British call a transistor a valve. I don't find anything anywhere else, either. Doesn't mean they don't use it that way. Bet someone here would know.