Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!kitty!larry From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) Newsgroups: sci.electronics,talk.bizarre Subject: Re: "Magic Eye" tubes Message-ID: <1841@kitty.UUCP> Date: Tue, 14-Jul-87 00:10:53 EDT Article-I.D.: kitty.1841 Posted: Tue Jul 14 00:10:53 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jul-87 02:38:16 EDT References: <1495@frog.UUCP> <35ffa63b.b8ab@apollo.uucp> <6@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM> <1384@brspyr1.BRS.Com> Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY Lines: 46 Summary: Older than nixie tubes... Xref: mnetor sci.electronics:961 talk.bizarre:2454 In article <1384@brspyr1.BRS.Com>, davef@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Dave Fiske) writes: > > Overheard the other day: "I'm so old, I even remember when calculator > > displays were LED!" > > Gee, I guess I'm an old fossil. > But I even remember: > > Nixie tubes. Hell, Nixie tubes are MODERN compared to some of the stuff I worked with in the 60's: 1. Counter decades made of ten discrete labeled lamps, stacked on top of each other. Example: Beckman Eput (tm) "meters" (really an early digital frequency counter using vacuum tube flip-flops). 2. The "Decatron" tube, which consisted of a round tube with ten anodes, equally spaced about a circle. It was nothing more than a multiple neon lamp, since it displayed no digits, but each anode was labeled on the panel. Example: a Baird-Atomic nuclear scaler that I once used. 3. Digital displays made from ten lucite plates, each with a number engraved, mounted one in front of each other, with each being lit by a miniature lamp whose light was "piped" by the lucite to the engraved area. Example: Cubic Corp. "electromechanical" digital voltmeters (they used stepping switches in a null-balance arrangement). 4. The "Nimo tube" tube, which was a miniature one inch diameter CRT which used electrostatic deflection and an aperture grid to select an electron mask which shaped an electron beam which struck a phosphor on the fron of the tube (it only displayed one character at a time). What an ugly looking display this was! It could handle up to 64 characters, however. It was manufacured by IEE, Inc. Nixie tubes are state-of-the-art compared to the above! Actually, we still have a fair amount of equipment in our labs which use Nixie tubes. It was only in the later 70's that LED displays were bright enough to compete with Nixie tubes (from the standpoint of visibility). <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York <> UUCP: {allegra|ames|boulder|decvax|rocksanne|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> VOICE: 716/688-1231 {hplabs|ihnp4|mtune|seismo|utzoo}!/ <> FAX: 716/741-9635 {G1,G2,G3 modes} "Have you hugged your cat todayrnew