Nixie tube (nonfiction)

The stacked digit arrangement in a Nixie tube is visible in this (stripped) ZM1210.

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.

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Light (nonfiction)

External links:

• Nixie tube @ Wikipedia