Jeremy here (the creator of this clock).  I wanted to quickly address this:

- You're definitely right about gobs of current.  The tubes take around 
12mA (at 140v striking voltage) to be fully lit.  The power supply I put in 
this thing puts out around 50mA tops (it has to fit inside the clock and 
not get too hot...), so all of the animations, etc. have to keep to that 
constraint.

- As for the non-linearity, the clock uses op-amp buffered npn current 
sinks for each of the digits to control the current quite tightly.  The 
glow length / current for the tubes, while not *perfectly* linear, is 
certainly close enough that you can't notice in an application such as this.

Let me know if you have any other questions about the operation of the 
clock - I'm happy to answer them!
Jeremy

On Thursday, September 3, 2015 at 11:55:27 AM UTC-4, gregebert wrote:
>
> Don't feel bad, Alex. I did some brief experimenting with IN-9 tubes and 
> found them to be non-linear, if not downright irrational, and consume gobs 
> of current considering how little light they produce.
>
> I used individual NE-2H bulbs for the hands on my big clock. Lots of 
> them....306 to be exact. Which also means 306 resistors, etc. Glad I did it 
> that way because it's been working great for a few years now.
>

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