In terms of longevity provided by mercury one just need look at the Chinese QS27-1 and QS30-1 tubes that contain no mercury. They are known to have very short lives. I also understand that Russian tubes prior to the IN-7, which does contain mercury, also have very short lifespans. I see a lot of the IN-1, IN-2 and IN-4 tubes on eBay at relatively low prices compared to the higher numbered tubes. I am guessing the demand is not there because of their failure rate or they have to discount them because they will fail.
On Friday, July 17, 2020 at 1:27:39 PM UTC-4, Paul Andrews wrote: > > I recently saw a post that suggested that the addition of a mercury dopant > to Nixie tubes does not confer the protection that we have all been led to > believe - apparently the Russians made a study suggesting this to be the > case. > > Regardless of whether this is true or not, I was wondering if there is a > way to determine the presence of mercury in tubes experimentally in a > non-destructive way, for example by using a spectrometer. If so, it might > be interesting to test a sample of tubes, including some that were > developed later, to see if they really do contain mercury. The presence of > mercury wouldn’t be conclusive evidence of its effectiveness, but the > absence could lend credence to the argument. It would be interesting > information either way. > > I know that some of you will say that you can see a tell-tail blue glow, > but I have quite a few nixies, including later examples, that do not show > this. I wouldn’t take this as proof that those tubes don’t contain mercury, > it could just be smaller amounts. > > This also got me thinking; if it isn’t mercury that confers a longer life, > then could it be something else? Could it be fine-tuning the cathode > material? Could it be fine tuning of the gas mixture and/or pressure? Which > got me wondering if there would also be a way to determine the pressure in > the tube? For example by examining the width of spectral emission lines? -- 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/8ae0f641-420d-4ac5-8648-fb90403ac2aao%40googlegroups.com.
