[Arran]

Mike;
The name "tube" is really colloquial for "Thermionic Vacuum Tube" although most tube manuals say "Electron Tube Manual". I think the British adopted the name from the "Fleming Valve" which was basically a detector diode, but when it came to picture tubes they called them "Cathode Ray Tubes" not "Cathode Ray Valves". I have also heard, and read the term "Kinescope" printed in service literature, even with American made TVs, but it was never universally adopted, picture tube was the colloquial term.
The favorite phrase that I heard for tubes, or valves, or lampes, was from Dave Jones of the EEV Blog, he called them "An FET with a pilot light."
Regards
Arran