I think my first introduction to Nixie tubes was while browsing around
the web, and I started reading about how you could put your own clock
together using these funny little vacuum tubes called Nixies. I have had
no electronics training or really even an interest in electronics, aside
Where to start? I made my first radio (valve) when I was about 9 (parts
from HL Smiths in Tottenham Court Road), was a very science-based kid (with
a lots of arts & drama too). We had all sorts of nice kit at school,
including a load of dekatron counters for stuff like timing intervals and
When I was in high school in Fairfax County, VA in 1968-1970 as a freshman
and sophomore (yes, I'm an old guy, too, like some of you), I was placed in
advanced math classes (had calculus as a sophomore). In one class, we went
one day and marveled at an electronic quadratic equation root solver
They were part of the test equipment that my dad used at work, occasionally
we would visit his work. Didn't think much of it when I was young in the
1960s. although the stuff looked really neat. Some time in the 1980s, I got
a used Bell & Howell (Heathkit) DVM with three Nixies, used it very
For me, my first real exposure that I can recall was in 1989, when I
started my 2nd real job in industry. The company had a large scale
inspection CMM that had a nixie tube display, 3 actually, one for each
axis. I was far more fascinated with the display than the instrument
itself. Later I
Mine is way less nostalgic. Despite apparently being older than most of you
(which I mention only because I don't consider myself old, so it comes as a
shock when I am the oldest person in th room), I have no memory of encountering
Nixie tubes until this millennium. At some point I saw a Nixie
My story starts very similar to Jonathan's,
I was the sort of kid who took toys apart, rather than play with them.. at
the age of 6 my Dad would take me to the scrapyard and allow me to fill the
boot of the car with 'stuff' that I can take to bits.. scrapyards were
pretty good back then, you
I encountered them while studying at Warsaw University of Technology. There
are still dozens of Meratronik multimeters being used there - mostly
because these are really idiot-proof and students won't destroy them :)
Having a manual range setting is also a bonus, because students can learn
