Hi Jens, You can find some material on the Burroughs - Haydu Brothers here: http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/nixie_and_trochotron_haydu_vs_burroughs.html there is also other information written on the Trochotrons and Nixies there, *Emilio Ciardiello *has more information on this and you can try to contact him and ask him directly. I've emailed him previously about Trochotrons and gotten very good help from him. /Martin
On Friday, September 14, 2012 10:48:11 AM UTC+2, Jens Boos wrote: > Hi Ira, > > > What do you know of Haydu Bros. and their readout tubes, in the early > > 1950's?? > > Burroughs launched their Nixie tube campaign as early as 1955, maybe > earlier, but that's not for sure. I am in contact with an old newspaper > archive at the moment, hoping to resolve that issue once and for all. > > Haydu Brothers and "their" readout tubes is very misleading. They did > NOT develop the Nixie tube. Before being purchased by Burroughs they > were not involved in the field; it all started in 1954 when Burroughs > purchased Haydu Brothers solely for their vacuum tube making equipment. > > The idea of the Nixie tube has been around much longer, the early 1950s > as can be seen by the patents we have collected. The key person is Saul > Kuchinsky who once worked at National Union and then later went to > Burroughs (in 1954). He must have brought a lot of expertise with him. > > > Burroughs bought them out in about 1956 if I recall correctly. > > Almost, they started advertising in 1955 as you can see here: > http://www.jb-electronics.de/html/elektronik/nixies/n_hb106.htm?lang=en > > Perhaps you refer to the "Nixie" trademark claim which was from 1956. > > Jens > > > Ira. > > > > > > > > On 9/11/2012 1:02 PM, jb-electronics wrote: > >> Hi folks, > >> > >> as some of you may know, besides Nixie tube collecting I am also > >> interested in the history. I am writing an article, and every now and > >> then I stumble upon something that makes me believe that I will most > >> likely never finish it ;-) > >> > >> Here is the confirmed US Nixie tube history: National Union was the > >> first to sell a readout tube product line (1954), although Northrop > >> aircraft filed promising patents as early as Nov 1950; however, these > >> tubes were never manufactured by Northrop (not a single one of these > >> tubes has been found as of today). National Union was closely > >> followed by Burroughs in 1955 who then offered their "Nixie" tube. > >> But National Union beat Burroughs by the nose. > >> > >> Anyway, I was doing some casual research for patents filed by > >> Ericsson, and found patent "GB739041", file is attached. The funny > >> thing is, this baby was filed May 9, 1950, predating the first > >> Northrop patent (US2618697) by more than half a year. The word > >> "improvements" in the patent title suggests that this patent bases on > >> other concepts already around at the time, but I cannot find out > >> which patents it refers to. Any ideas? > >> > >> The most interesting thing is that Ericsson was probably the first > >> company that commercialised the idea of a Nixie tube (and thus > >> thought it worth to be patent-protected, that is the logic here). > >> > >> I feel that the European history of the Nixie tube needs further > >> research. Has anyone been able to piece together the European side of > >> the story? > >> > >> To be honest, I don't know if this patent is an entirely new > >> discovery, but I could not find it on Randall's page: > >> http://www.scientificsolutions.ca/patents.htm > >> > >> Jens > >> > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/neonixie-l/-/NtZdyLxYQ4EJ. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
