Question about valves running hours


I'm new to the tubes world and when I bought my amplifier the seller told me not to run it for more than 8 hours, letting it for rest a couple hours before the next listening session. I wasn't told why, but now I got curious and I want to know more about it. 
What's the reason for this limitation? What can we damage and why?
128x128migueca
Doesn't  anyone remember?Vacuum tubes powered WWII.
Doubtful equipment was on a timer and shut off after 8 hours.

That being said, it doesn't mean keep it always on, just turn it off when you're finished listening. It is a good idea to at least have the amp in an open rack  or top shelf for ventilation.



Another pertinent question: If valves were the power support to all communications in a recent past (from tv and radio broadcast to military coms), for how long would they live? Would a valve survive more than a few hundred hours? Were they replaced many times a year? Or did the equipments have different banks of valves to switch between them? I'm curious about how people used to operate the tubes 50 years ago.
migueca- I don't know about military/industrial practice, but back in the '60s, it was pretty common for tubes (and free standing tube testing machines that looked like ATMs in size) to be everywhere- drug stores, hardware stores, electronic specialty stores (like Radio Shack and Lafayette) and other places. It wasn't uncommon for a civilian appliance owner to take a set of tubes to such a shop, 'test' them, and buy replacements.  (Sometimes, the new tubes were on shelves behind a door at the front of the testing machine).
If it was a big TV/console and the owner was not equipped to do this, there was a business-- the TV/radio repairman, for lack of a better term- who would show up at your house and do the work. People generally weren't fawning over Telefunkens with specific markings; GE was a pretty common brand at least in the NE States and for these purposes, a tube was a tube, there were 'equivalents' that you could look up (still available as pages on the 'Net) and it all seemed pretty matter of fact. By the mid-'60s, I guess, transistor stuff became more commonplace, but the tube regime hung on well into the '70s or later as a fairly common artifact. (I'm not talking about audiophile or specialty applications, just garden variety tube usage, availability and replacement). 
Whart -  thank you for that "History class" :) It's really interesting to learn how people dealt with gear in the past - this case, valves.
It seems a valve was something simple and common, like a light bulb.