I'm not even going to entertain the possibility of Telefunken Nixies
in the 1940s. You might as well tell me the Germans developed a
functional atomic bomb in the 1930s but never patented it or used it
because they didn't want to infringe on US atomic bomb patents that
would later be filed in the 1940s.
I am just curious what makes him believe that. His Haydu/Burroughs story
contains true elements but they are somewhat mixed up, but the TFK story
seems completely wrong. That is why I am confused a little. I am sure,
though, that if TFK had made early Nixie tubes, our Jan Wüsten would
have knowledge about it.
[...] The earliest Burroughs Nixie patent dates to
1956 IIRC, and there are no Haydu Nixie patents. It is not entirely
impossible that somebody will eventually turn up a pre-release 6700
from 1954, but I'm confident the Haydu/Burroughs Nixie did not exist
in a manufacturable state until 1955.
Yes, based on our collected material this is the only reasonable
conclusion. I still have to find that early Burroughs patent though.
There was a time when I knew some numbers, but this is half a year ago
(I somehow lost track of the patent research I have to admit, it is such
a detailed work...)
A note on Haydu's role: Although the beam switching tube and Nixie
were electrically designed by Burroughs, I think it's a foregone
conclusion that Haydu production engineers were heavily involved in
the high-volume refinement of these tubes. If you note the Stems&
Sockets brochure, they're making a big fuss about the high-pin-count
button bases they're using. I'm guessing the button bases are a direct
result of Haydu production engineering.
That is interesting. I think Burroughs meant to understate this issue,
citation of E. Lord:
"Burroughs purchased the Haydu plant in 1954 expressly for the purpose of
manufacturing and selling new products developed at our Paoli, Pennsylvania facility. One
of the first new products, the NIXIE tube, started the division on the road to
success."
Ed. Lord, Editor, the Burroughs Readout Volume 1, Number 5, July 1972
But I guess it is natural that Burroughs wanted to market the Nixie
tubes and their production solely as their own success.
Jens
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