1963 LIGHTNING EMPIRICIST PHILBRICK RESEARCHES OP AMP P65 P66 P2 BOB PEASE ISSUE
ITEM DESCRIPTION
The Lightning Empiricist, Vol. 11, No. 2 (April 1, 1963), the influential house journal of George A. Philbrick Researches (Boston), documenting the company’s pivotal shift from vacuum-tube analog modules to silicon devices. Eight pages in self-wrappers, richly illustrated with photographs, block diagrams, and complete schematics. Lead essay “Philbrick & the Semiconductor Revolution” frames the shop’s move into solid state and the new design practices it required.
Content highlights include Robert Allen Pease’s substantial article “Design of a Modern High-Performance Operational Amplifier”—an early, desirable publication by the legendary analog designer—alongside a biomedical case study, “The Bellevue Intracardiac Oximeter”, showing Philbrick P65 amplifiers at work in clinical instrumentation. Several pages survey contemporary modules and supplies: P45 solid-state op amp; PR-150 and PR-150C regulated supplies (plus junior PR-30/PR-30C); P2 vacuum-tube differential op amp (the classic workhorse of mid-century analog computing); P5 current booster; P65 and P66 differential amplifiers and followers; PP65 epoxy-potted differential amplifier; SP656 chopper-stabilized amplifier; and related 6151-series units. The issue offers performance notes (gain, offset, noise, temperature behavior), typical externals, and application comments valuable to historians and bench users alike.
Philbrick’s modular amplifiers—beginning with the P2 (early 1950s)—were the first broadly marketed op-amp building blocks, the backbone of laboratory analog computing, industrial control, and early biomedical measurement. By 1963 the firm stood at the center of the “semiconductor revolution”; this newsletter captures that transition in real time, pairing theory (Hall effect discourse and analog-as-model arguments) with practical circuits. For collectors of early op-amp technology and followers of Bob Pease’s later career at National Semiconductor, this is a concise, primary-source snapshot from the Boston shop that taught a generation how to think in op-amp blocks.
This is a clean, sound example showing expected gentle toning to the paper and a small penciled date notation at the upper front corner. Three tidy binder punch holes at the inner margins (likely for filing). Minor handling to edges and corners, pages uniformly bright with crisp halftones and legible schematics; no tears observed and no intrusive markings inside. A well-kept shop copy that presents neatly in hand.
Make sure to see the photos above for complete details.
8 pages.
Measuresapproximately11 inches tall by 8 1/2 inches wide.
KEYWORDS
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_gsrx_vers_1723 (GS 9.9.3 (1723))
