The Kr85 is a gas in the tube that decomposes by beta decay to supply an ionization potential to allow the display discharge to start quickly. The beta particles can't penetrate glass or ceramic of the envelope but when broken open you can read it with a Geiger counter.
The segment cathode contacts on the base are usually sintered silver; never seen gold plated units before. The anode contacts are transparent ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) on the face plate glass. jt -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/a3ada134-4452-47a6-862b-b55a3d25e9e0%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
