Vintage Nixie Tubes and Clocks

Even though Nixie tubes resemble vacuum tubes in appearance, they actually have more in common with neon signs. Both Nixie tubes (introduced at a trade show in 1955) and vacuum tubes (an early example is the Geissler tube, invented in 1857) use cathodes, which are slender lengths of electrically charged wire. In vacuum tubes used to power amplifiers, radios, and other vintage electronics, the cathodes are designed to produce heat to create a...Continue Reading