More appropriately called the Williams-Kilburn tube, the Williams tube is a storing device for data and CRT (cathode ray tubes) used with early computers. An application for a patent was originally filed by Freddie Williams on December 11, 1946, and it was finished by Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn. The tube stored only 128, 40-bit words as an electrical charge that created a spot of light on the face of the “TV tube.”

The picture above is of the Williams-Kilburn tube that was used in the Manchester Mark I computer, taken at the Computer History Museum by Computer Hope.

CRT, Memory terms, Nixie tube, Selectron tube

  • Computer memory history.
  • Memory (RAM) help and support.