Nixie tube
A Nixie tube ( ), or cold cathode display, is an electronic device used for displaying numerals or other information using glow discharge.

The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode and multiple cathodes, shaped like numerals or other symbols. Applying power to one cathode surrounds it with an orange glow discharge. The tube is filled with a gas at low pressure, usually mostly neon and often a little mercury or argon, in a Penning mixture.

Although it resembles a vacuum tube in appearance, its operation does not depend on thermionic emission of electrons from a heated cathode. It is hence a cold-cathode tube (a form of gas-filled tube), and is a variant of the neon lamp. Such tubes rarely exceed even under the most severe of operating conditions in a room at ambient temperature. Vacuum fluorescent displays from the same era use completely different technology—they have a heated cathode together with a control grid and shaped phosphor anodes; Nixies have no heater or control grid, typically a single anode (in the form of a wire mesh, not to be confused with a control grid), and shaped bare metal cathodes.
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electronic
Concept
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displaying numerals or other information
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glow discharge
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anode
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cathode
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numerals
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glow discharge
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neon
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mercury
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argon
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Penning mixture
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vacuum tube
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thermionic emission
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electron
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cold-cathode
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gas-filled tube
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neon lamp
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Vacuum fluorescent display
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Nixie tube
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