Vintage Displays - First introduced in Market - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ElectricGuy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2016, 01:17:31 am
content: Just for curiosity, does anyone know when this list of displays was first introduced in market?- Nixie like IN16/IN12- VFD like IV12- Bubble display like QDSP-6064- TIL311 - 1972?- Numitron like IV9

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2016, 01:47:39 am
content: I have no idea at all but I'd like to share what I stumbled upon yesterday.Sphere's got nixies, heaps of them:http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/nixies.html

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2016, 02:11:04 am
content: Don't know, I used to have a link for a great linear history of display technology, complete with fun pictures like a 5x7 dot display hand-built on a slab of whatever with wires coming out everywhere. Like, the first one ever.Just to make your life more interesting, here's a display technology I've only ever seen on the Tek 1S2:Backlit digits and annunciators. Very simple, just a cutout in a film with lightbulbs behind, and selected directly from the front panel switches.

author: Enigma-man
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 04:21:09 am
content: A patent ( 2,142,106 ) for a numerical readout device was filed on May 9, 1934 and granted January 3, 1939. The inventor is listed as Hans P. Boswau from Galion, Ohio. He was an engineer.His design had the tube horizontally mounted and similar to some seen in clocks. The concept has been around for 82 years.Burroughs Corp. began to offer their Nixie tubes commercially in the mid 1950's. RCA Numitrons were readily available to experimenters in the late 60's and 70's.Once LED seven segment displays hit the scene, the tubes became obsolete and warehouses were stuck with thousands of them that nobody wanted any more...Jump ahead to today where the Nixie or gas discharge devices have become the current craze for clocks.I believe the Chinese are producing new ones as I type this and maybe even the Russians are starting to do so as well.I remember buying several Burroughs Nixies from Radio Shack in the 70's. Yes, Radio Shack. I think they were around $3 or $4 each. I used to work at Rad Shack and alwayshad first crack at the Nixies when an order came in. Sadly, to many experimenters who always asked "Get any Nixie tubes in the order ?" My reply was "Nope..."Because, as I looked at the manifest sheets and saw how many there were in the order, none made their way to the pegboard hooks...When you look at what Sphere in B.C. is asking, it's a lot of money to fork out to make a clock. I also have some seven segment Beckman displays and Japanese VFD's.No, I am NOT WILLING to part with any of them. Just putting this out there so someone doesn't ask...Seriously, NONE are for sale or to give away.What am I going to do with them ? Not making clocks, that's for sure.I'm sure someone can provide more info on the tubes in your list.

author: ElectricGuy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 08:32:13 am
content: Thanks

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 11:56:38 am
content: Here's a tech-history site about exactly this kind of thing:http://www.decadecounter.com/vta/tubelist.php

author: ElectricGuy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2016, 01:05:31 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on July 26, 2016, 11:56:38 amGreat! Thanks!

author: Cubdriver
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 27, 2016, 01:12:51 am
content: Here's some history on the evolution of the LED display from Bob Steward, a guy who worked at HP:http://hpmemoryproject.org/timeline/bob_steward/led_solutions_00.htm-Pat