I would say that the different anode styles are definitely an attempt to trade off effectiveness, visibility and ease of manufacture.
Some early nixies didn’t have an anode mesh. They just used the cage at the back. I guess this wasn’t too successful though given that all later nixies have the grid. Some (a lot of?) nixies have an additional anode, part way up the stack of digits, it is usually shaped like a 1. I have multiple types of top view nixie that have a rectangular anode grid that doesn’t cover the whole stack - these tend to be later versions of the same model, so it would seem that the design was continually being refined, which is not really surprising. Off the top of my head, the only one I can remember like this is the CD27. This tube also has the grid set two digits down in the stack. Finally, the planar ZM1350 uses a transparent coating of tin oxide as the anode grid. The technology evidenced in these tubes is quite advanced, but ultimately short lived. My favorite anodes are the horizontal grids found in the ZM1177, ZM1175 etc., not to forget the unique grid of the ZM1212/ZM1210. On Sunday, September 6, 2020 at 8:41:20 AM UTC-4 Robert G. Schaffrath wrote: > Just theorizing but it would appear to be for legibility. The anode has to > cover the the surface area of every digit for uniform lighting and firing > current. At the same time, too much anode material blocks the light. Of the > various tubes I have, Rodan GR-111Pa’s use a very fine spiral type wire. > B7971’s use something akin to window screen. My Philips ZM-1022’s use a > honeycomb type anode. IN-12’s use a square hole anode. Some small Burroughs > Nixies I have use a microdot type screen. Really seems to be a trade off > between surface coverage and legibility. > > On Saturday, September 5, 2020 at 10:19:13 PM UTC-4 Terry Bowman wrote: > >> I've noticed that Nixies have different kinds of anodes. Some have a >> fine, rectangular mesh, others a more coarse mesh, and some a honeycomb >> design. What's the reason? Performance vs. legibility? >> >> >> Terry Bowman, KA4HJH >> "The Mac Doctor" >> >> https://www.astarcloseup.com/ >> >> “The book said something astonishing, a very big thought. >> It said that the stars were suns, only very far away. >> The Sun was a star, but close up.”—Carl Sagan, *Cosmos*, 1980 >> >> >> -- 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/eada24bc-21cf-46c9-899c-bd795a919da1n%40googlegroups.com.
