Admiralty and Ministry of Defence: Co-ordination of Valve Development Department:...

Reports and other papers of the Co-ordination of Valve Development Department (CVD), dealing with the development of thermionic valves, research into solid state and neutron generation devices, lasers, and low temperature physics for the armed services and other government departments. The series also contains records of two laboratories established by CVD to provide technical support: the Services' Electronics Research Laboratory (SERL) and the Services' Valve Testing Laboratory (SVTL).

For related physical research reports, see ADM 285

For reports and memoranda of the Royal Radar Establishment and predecessors of the Ministry of Technology and predecessors see AVIA 26

For further records of signals and Radar establishments, see DEFE 35

From 1988 Ministry of Defence

The Co-ordination of Valve Development Department was set up in 1938 by the Admiralty Director of Scientific Research. From 1946 it came under the Director of Physical Research. Its function was to co-operate with industry in developing new thermionic valves to meet the demands of the Navy, and later the other services. It negotiated and supervised development contracts with the technical assistance of committees, panels, and two laboratories it helped to establish. The Services' Valve Life Testing Establishment was set up shortly before the Second World War. Its title changed in 1952 to the Services' Valve Testing Laboratory (SVTL). In the early 1960s the importance of valves declined as solid state devices were developed and the laboratory's work was handed over to SERL. The Services' Electronics Research Laboratory (SERL) was set up in 1945. It conducted research into solid state devices, lasers and neutron generation devices. In 1976 it became a division of the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE). It closed in 1981.