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In article <1384@brspyr1.BRS.Com>, davef@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Dave Fiske) writes:
> > Overheard the other day: "I'm so old, I even remember when calculator
> > displays were LED!"
> 
> Gee, I guess I'm an old fossil.
> But I even remember:
> 
> Nixie tubes.

	Hell, Nixie tubes are MODERN compared to some of the stuff I worked
with in the 60's:

1.	Counter decades made of ten discrete labeled lamps, stacked on top
	of each other.  Example: Beckman Eput (tm) "meters" (really an
	early digital frequency counter using vacuum tube flip-flops).

2.	The "Decatron" tube, which consisted of a round tube with ten
	anodes, equally spaced about a circle.  It was nothing more than
	a multiple neon lamp, since it displayed no digits, but each anode
	was labeled on the panel.  Example: a Baird-Atomic nuclear scaler
	that I once used.

3.	Digital displays made from ten lucite plates, each with a number
	engraved, mounted one in front of each other, with each being
	lit by a miniature lamp whose light was "piped" by the lucite to
	the engraved area.  Example: Cubic Corp. "electromechanical"
	digital voltmeters (they used stepping switches in a null-balance
	arrangement).

4.	The "Nimo tube" tube, which was a miniature one inch diameter
	CRT which used electrostatic deflection and an aperture grid to
	select an electron mask which shaped an electron beam which
	struck a phosphor on the fron of the tube (it only displayed one
	character at a time).  What an ugly looking display this was!
	It could handle up to 64 characters, however.  It was manufacured
	by IEE, Inc.

	Nixie tubes are state-of-the-art compared to the above!  Actually,
we still have a fair amount of equipment in our labs which use Nixie tubes.
It was only in the later 70's that LED displays were bright enough to
compete with Nixie tubes (from the standpoint of visibility).

<>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York
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