Once upon a time in Massachusetts, a company called Hytron made tubes. Two of their box styles are shown here. The one on your left is a Bantam Tube box. Bantam being relative. It contained a locktal tube. Hardly bantam by today's standards. That box courtesy Bob Ellingson. One box says Salem, Mass. The other, Danvers, Mass.

Then came the buy-out by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). See the update from Paul Christofferson. These two boxes show the early connection to CBS. The box above shows two views of the same box.

	When they modernized the box looked like the one on your left. There were however, two versions. On the earlier, the side panel still showed the HYTRON connection. In later versions, HYTRON was dropped.

I'm not sure about the box to your right. It says HYTRON on it, but nothing else. No information. That doesn't sound like an early manufacturer. Seems more like a latter year name licensee or a reboxer. But not knowing, it's shown here under it's famous name.

Their EIA/RETMA code was 210, however some tubes showed the code of other manufacturers. Usually they used the standard year - week date code, but some have a two letter code. Tube writing was orange or red and very neat.
We obtained many of these in the 60's from a mail order supplier who mostly shipped Philco tubes, but also some of these. We also got several more in buying out an older local company in the 70's.

UPDATE Aug 12, 2005, from Paul Christofferson: My Dad, Jim Christofferson, started with Hytron in 1943. They were manufacturing proximity fuses for the war effort. After WWII, they tooled up for the prodution of both radio and TV tubes. My Dad designed most of the automatic machinery used in this prodution. CBS bought Hytron from the owner in the mid 50's.They began making color TV tubes and competed with RCA until they closed the company in 1961. They had plants in Danvers, Newburyport, Salem, and Lowell, Mass.

Thanks, Paul!

CBS-Hytron page counter. Each page has its' own counter.