Nixie Tube Clock

Richard K. Covington
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Nixie Tube Clock
Nixie Tube Clock

This Nixie Tube clock features Russian made, IN-8 nixie tubes. These are high quality, military grade, long life tubes with large 19mm (0.8") digits. Unlike some Russian nixie tubes these feature a proper number 5 and not a back to front / upside down number 2. The numbers in the tubes appear to be stacked (from back to front) in the order of 0, 1, 2, 9, 3, 8, 4, 7, 5, 6 thus as the seconds “click forward in time” the digits seem to jump in place, resulting in an “animation” of the display. (refer to the 10 seconds video that illustrates this)

Nixie tubes were manufactured in Europe and the USA in the 1960's and 70's and in Russia up to the early 90's. Nixie tube displays predate LED and LCD displays. Inside a glass tube, ten solid metal cathodes are shaped to form the digits 0 - 9 which, when lit, give off a warm orange glow that can be read from a distance.

With modern seven segment and dot matrix displays, we have become used to straight lines forming the digit segments. e.g., a zero is displayed as a "rectangle" - however, each nixie tube digit has its own individually formed number, thus curves can be incorporated into the number, hence a zero is displayed as an oval.

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Taken on: January 14, 2011
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with Nixie Tube Nixie Tube Everybody's photos tagged with Nixie Tube Clock Nixie Tube Clock
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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, 70mm, ISO 3200 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure Time: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length: 70mm
ISO: 3200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Manual
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
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