I should have prefaced that by explaining that it was written by our very own Jens Boos, who's a member of the group! :)
Nice job Jens! On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 2:34 PM Nicholas Stock <[email protected]> wrote: > Here's the text in question... > > In a 2011 email to me, Roger Wolfe, a Burroughs engineer, recalled the > team’s first fragile attempt: “We put the tube on life test overnight. When > we came in the next day, so much cathode material had sputtered onto the > dome of the tube that the numerals were no longer visible. We had invented > a tube with a 24-hour life!” > > After some tinkering, Wolfe wrote, they discovered that the addition of > mercury vapor would greatly extend the tube’s life span. The sputtering had > been caused by the accelerated neon ions striking the cathode. But when the > neon ions collided with the heavier mercury molecules, their energy dropped > below the point where they could damage the cathode. > > “We secured a tiny ampule with mercury sealed inside, wrapped a few turns > of resistance wire around the ampule, [and] connected the ends of the wire > to two of the [tube’s] pins,” Wolfe wrote. The tube was then sealed, and > the team ran current through the wire, which heated and broke the ampule, > releasing the mercury. > > In August 1955, Burroughs unveiled its new indicator tube at Wescon—the > Western Electronic Show and Convention, in California—which was for many > years the leading U.S. electronics event. Soon after, it began shipping the > first tubes to customers. That December, the company filed for a patent on > its “glow indicating tube > <https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d0/2c/b4/44e051c1df6bf3/US2833949.pdf>” > [PDF] The devices were mechanically superior to the numeric display tubes > still on offer from National Union: They had dedicated anodes made from > wire mesh, and instead of hand-bent wires, the cathode numerals were etched > out of thin sheet metal. The addition of mercury prolonged the tubes’ life > span, eventually to more than 200,000 hours. > > On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 1:29 PM Dekatron42 <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> There is some information in this article, presumably first hand >> information from a Burroughs engineer, on the extended life when mercury >> was added: >> https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-nixie-tube-story-the-neon-display-tech-that-engineers-cant-quit >> (just search for mercury). >> >> I also know of a few patents whoch describe this, but don't have the >> numbers at hand, I do however think these were by Burroughs. >> >> /Martin >> >> -- >> 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 view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/cf14f263-3901-4fef-8dbe-b80c9b66583ao%40googlegroups.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/cf14f263-3901-4fef-8dbe-b80c9b66583ao%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- 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 view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRHKtnJH7eCfShKz-buN%2BJUgJmtKGWUcyGbd-w5THiwnkgA%40mail.gmail.com.
