Nixie tube (nonfiction)
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A Nixie tube (English /ˈnɪk.siː/ nik-see), or cold cathode display, is an electronic device for displaying numerals or other information using glow discharge.
The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode and multiple cathodes, shaped like numerals or other symbols. Applying power to one cathode surrounds it with an orange glow discharge. The tube is filled with a gas at low pressure, usually mostly neon and often a little mercury or argon, in a Penning mixture.
Although it resembles a vacuum tube in appearance, its operation does not depend on thermionic emission of electrons from a heated cathode. It is therefore called a cold-cathode tube (a form of gas-filled tube), or a variant of neon lamp. Such tubes rarely exceed 40 °C (104 °F) even under the most severe of operating conditions in a room at ambient temperature.
Vacuum fluorescent displays from the same era use completely different technology—they have a heated cathode together with a control grid and shaped phosphor anodes; Nixies have no heater or control grid, typically a single anode, and shaped bare metal cathodes.
In the News
Fiction cross-reference
- Alice Beta
- The Nixie Economy - nonfiction book by Alice Beta about the economic and historical significance of Nixie tubes.
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links:
- Nixie tube @ Wikipedia
- The Art of Making a Nixie Tube @ YouTube