Whatis a Nixie Clock?
You may have seen the nixie clocksin old scientific movies from 70th and wondered how they worked.Well, here is your chance to find out.
Have you everwondered what was used before digital LED displays overtook displays in consumerproducts? There were cold cathode display tubes in use, or so called, nixietubes. The Burroughs Corporation originally introduced these nixie tubes in the 60th. Actually,the name ‘nixie’ came almost accidentally. A designer making drawings of thedevice labelled it NIX I, for Numeric Indicator eXperimental No. 1. A colleagueof him began referring to it as ‘Nixie’, and the name glued. Production stoppedin the United States and Europe in the 1970s, and continued in Russia andUkraine into the 80th-90th. That explains its pricetoday.
You may wonder howthe nixie tubes work. Nixie tubes work inthe same way as a neon tubes, but instead of two similar electrodes, they havespecially shaped electrodes in the shape of the symbol or digit. Anotherelectrode (the anode) is in the form of a fine mesh grid inside the nixie tube atthe front of the tube. When a high voltage is present across the electrodes, theneon gas between them glows a warm orange color. So how can you display morethan one symbol per nixie tube? Simple—just stack a heap of differently shapedelectrodes one behind the other with insulating spacers between them, and drivethe digit you want to light up. The nixie tubes need around 160 volts or moreto strike, and then maintain around 120 volts across the tube while running. Infact, it works very well, and provides sharp, clear characters that can bedriven by simply connecting the appropriate cathode to the negative of the highvoltage supply.
We personally fellin love with nixie tubes. Wherevernixie tubes are used it gets our attention. One great idea to revive nixietubes is to put them on display in a nixie tubeclock. Our unique Nixie Tube Clock imparts a warm orange glowfrom with brand new nixie tubes that were rescued from old military equipmentin long abandoned basements in Eastern Europe. Today there is a very limitedexistence of such IN-14 nixie clock, and such nixie tubes will never beproduced again.
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