Modes of Operation of Cold Cathode Display Clocks (Nixie Tube)

What’s up guys, it’s been a while.

Today I've got something I believe you're all gonna think is really cool and it is a clock. You might be thinking how a clock can be interesting, but it is a special type of clock made of what looks like vacuum tubes but they're actually called “Nixie Tubes”

_{A Nixie clock with six ZM1210 tubes made by Telefunken. Image source: Wikipedia}

Unlike vacuum tubes which are basically amplifiers, Nixie tubes are specifically used as number indicators, kind of like a predecessor to digital displays and these were used a long time ago but fell out of popularity in the 70's and 60s. A lot of people have never even heard of them. If you look up close, you can actually see the different numbered filaments inside.

For every digit 0 through 9, there is an actual filament in there that is shaped like that number and when you put electricity through that, the whole thing is filled with a low-pressure gas so the electricity heats up that filament and actually causes the filament and the gas around it to glow and cause what is known as “glow discharge” The actual light around the filament is bigger than the filament itself which really looks pretty awesome and it is literally glowing.

Because each digit is a separate filament and it's located in a slightly different place, you can actually see the numbers moving back and forth as the digits change. Unlike some vacuum tubes which get very hot, this is actually not hot at all, it's like lukewarm at best so you're not going to burn yourself. It's a lot different than a regular vacuum tube.

Like I mentioned before, these Nixie tubes were actually used in a lot of things before digital displays came out, such as everything from calculators like desktop calculators to sometimes in elevator floor number displays and scientific instruments when they had those big tower computers that took up a whole room, they would have these Nixie tubes in there to show numbers.

_{Image source: Imgur.com}

They come in a lot of different shapes and sizes and they didn't necessarily just have numbers in them, they also have letters as well, so you really could have used it to display almost anything you wanted.

Another interesting thing you would note about these is when the numbers are arranged, it's not in sequential order, so the first number in the image above one is 6. 1 & 0 are actually near the back and that's because the filaments are arranged based on legibility. It's to minimize which numbers would be blocked so that a number in the front doesn't block all the other ones in the back when it's not lit.

It's actually thoughtfully arranged so no matter what number is lit, you can see it the best even if it's all the way in the back. If you've never heard of Nixie tubes before, don't blame yourself because they really have not been used in a very long while, they started becoming obsolete back in the 70s and actually, there are no more new ones being manufactured at least by the original companies. It's mostly used as a revival like a hobby right now for people who just think they're cool and used in clocks etc.

Although, there is one company started by a guy named Dalibor Farný and that's actually the name of his company as well who did actually start manufacturing new Nixie tubes himself. As far as I know, he's the only person who makes new Nixie tubes at the current time.

This is definitely a niche product and the ones made by him at least cost about $145 each, not cheap at all although he does put a lot of work into it and they're made by hand. He did upload a video showing the process of making one of these tubes which I thought was super interesting, you can watch it below.

You don't obviously have to buy one of the brand new ones by him, there are plenty of old Nixie tubes that have just not been sold and not been used although they are obviously getting a little bit more expensive as the years goes on because there are no new manufacturers. If you do end up wanting to buy a premade clock, that's not going to be cheap either, it's gonna run you about $150 to $300 minimum and that's for like a small clock. If you want to get big tubes, it's gonna be a lot more.

I guess there's not much more to say about these types of clocks, they're just really awesome and I thought you guys would like to see it. I hope you find this article interesting and if you did, don’t hesitate to hit that upvote button below.

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_{For further reading: 1 - 2}

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