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Tube selection at Philco was not based on war surplus, but on several other factors. It had a preferred tubes list for circuit design engineers that evolved from such things as:
1. What was made at Lansdale Tube plant
2. What could be made available in production quantities
3. What was in the pipeline
4. What could be second sourced in event of supply disruption
5. What design support the Lansdale application engineers provided
6. The circuit design engineer's preference
7. What made sense for the application
8. The available technology
9. Effort to limit the number of tubes required for production
10. Cost
Very little was in stock for manufacturing purposes. Virtually everything had to be ordered. Getting material on time was a bigger problem than burning off old stock. Obsolete material was scrapped by the truck load at the end of a production run. Tube suppliers had to gear up well in advance of delivery and maintain a running supply during production. The circuits for the 1950 model year were designed in '47 and '48 so they were based on the materials available at the time.
Tube machinery was set up to make several numbers that were used by the military so conversion was easy, but only temporary. Many of the numbers were reliable and engineers familiar with their use, so they were continued for early TVs.
Surplus government material was sold off by the government, not returned to the suppliers. The government took loads of material and shipped it directly to surplus houses. Suppliers had no reason to make more than the contract called for. Extras were lost profits.
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