Long Transistor leads

[MapleLeaf]

I have a few old-new stock transistors, JAN2n718a, that have very long leads.
Why the long leads?  For point to point wiring?
And why does it come in a plastic tube? As far as I can tell, these are not special transistors.

These came from a company that does military and commercial air craft.
The picture also shows a plastic pn2222 transistor for comparison.

[tkamiya]

Maybe that particular transistor had a certain application where that was necessary?  Surely not all transistors came with that long a lead.  Having it come in a tube tells me it was hand-selected as part of the process. 

Having said that, I'm from Japan and I recall germanium transistors in 80s that we had, had far longer lead than what we get on 2n2222.  But not THAT long.

[MK14]

With older stuff, PCBs were not always available or used.
E.g. Tag Strip construction.
So, non-PCBs, sometimes needed the very long leads.

Example picture:

[T3sl4co1l]

Mil hardware was often point-to-point or spot welded.  I'm sure there's a spec somewhere for component lead length.

Tim

[Seekonk]

Years ago they also made a big deal out of soldering heat reaching the transistor and damaging it. You were supposed to grab onto the lead with a pliers to stop the heat.  Lead length allowed that to happen.  Probably some truth to that way back when. Now we toast the crap out of them.

[schmitt trigger]

Years ago they also made a big deal out of soldering heat reaching the transistor and damaging it. You were supposed to grab onto the lead with a pliers to stop the heat.  Lead length allowed that to happen.  Probably some truth to that way back when. Now we toast the crap out of them.

Exactly!
Germanium transistors were specially vulnerable.
I remember purchasing from Radio Shack a alligator-type heat sink that one would clip to the lead being soldered, to prevent heat from reaching the transistor.
In those days, as we were transitioning from vacuum tubes to transistors, we still used HUGE soldering irons. I had a gun-type iron. Weller. Put out humongous amounts of heat.

Another reason, in the pre-PCB days, the wiring was point to point. The photo posted by MK14 brought out some nostalgia.