Nixie Tubes and the Importance of Antique Technology
Nixie Tubes may just be the most popular form of technology you do not know about. Its glowing orange figures, and antique bulb are shining reminders of the importance of form and its balance with utility. In this edition of Generally Educated we’ll take a look the birth, death, and rebirth of the invention that mixed American and Soviet ingenuity — The Nixie Tube.
What is a Nixie Tube?
The cold cathode display or Nixie tube is an analog bulb, powered by electricity, that displays numbers and symbols, or less commonly letters. Its constructed with metal inserts in the shape of the numbers, which are stacked on top of one another. Once any single number is electrically charged it glows orange, thanks to the electricity and the neon gas contained inside the bulb. The bulbs have the same aesthetics of vacuum tubes, but of course use the aforementioned technology.
The History of the Humble Nixie Tube
The story of the Nixie Tube starts with the humble Haydu Brothers Laboratories, founded by two Hungarian brothers George and Zoltan and their father John. They were all first-generation emigrants, fleeing the Nationalist Horthy Government. The two were financial geniuses and their business quickly grew the be the single largest employer in their new hometown of Warren, New Jersey. Their company gained contracts with the United States military for innovative war materials. It’s because of the military contracts and the creation of the Nixie Tube that George Haydu later earn himself the 1959 Citizen of the Year, delivered personally by ex-President Truman.
Haydu Brothers Laboratories started production of their improved version of the cold cathode display in 1954, producing a model that was both cost effective and reliable. Their version of the tube was the first commercially successful iteration. Many had tried to produce a cost-effective version of the cold cathode display before, but they were too expensive or fragile for legitimate use. The Haydu’s were both lucky and intelligent enough to be able to produce the tube at the time they did. With the required preliminary technologies and a low-cost production model they succeeded in making the tube a viable technology. It’s for this reason that the Haydu brothers are known as the fathers of the cold cathode display or the Nixie Tube.
Moving on to Bigger Things
After realizing the success of their version of the cold cathode display, the brothers recognized they needed both experienced advisers and significant cash flow to support a ramping up of production. Therein comes the Burroughs Corporation, who purchased the Haydu Brothers Laboratories. Burroughs Corp. was an experienced hardware and computing company which allowed the nixie tubes to quickly be moved to large-scale production starring in 1955.
Burroughs Corporation called the tubes the NIX 1, or “Numeric Indicator eXperimental №1”. Many believe that Burroughs Corporation wanted to name it after the Germanic mythical creature called Neck or Nixie, to gain market recognition. Whether the mythical name helped or not, the name Nixie stuck in the American vernacular, and the technology was used in everything from elevators to supercomputers. The Nixie tube was a complete and utter success.
How the Nixie Tube Became Soviet
Although the first mass-market nixie tubes were produced in the United States and created by the Hungarian Haydu Brothers, who were proudly outspoken of their hatred of the Soviet Union and their occupation of their home country: the Nixie tubes were most famously known as a Soviet technology. The Soviet Union produced more Nixie Tubes than any country in the world, they produced and used the technology up until their dissolution in 1991. As could be expected, the Soviet Union never paid any royalties to the Haydu brothers or Burroughs Corporation.
While the stealing of the Nixie Tube technology can be best described as a perfect example of copyright infringement, it is interesting to see how the Soviets modified the Nixie Tubes. As a perfect example of the Soviet school of thought, the “2” and “5” metal inserts were the exact same form — just flipped to their respective orientation. The Soviets valued simplicity and low production cost, opting for volume. The IN-18 nixie tube or biggie nixie, one of the most popular versions of the Soviet produced Nixie Tube, made use of this cost saving measure and many others.
For more than 30 years the Soviets used nixie tubes as an alternative to the new American LEDs for military and industry concerns. While the United states was able to move on to more cost effective and new technologies, the Soviet Union was stuck in the early 1960s in digital number display technology. For this reason, Nixie Tubes are abundant in ex-Soviet states.
The Collector Revival
Most Nixie Tubes being bought by new collectors are coming from Ukraine, after sitting in storage buildings untouched for years. Collecting of these obsolescent bulbs has been an underground hobby, fueled by technophiles and antique collectors. Many retrofit these tubes into clocks, wristwatches and recently a chess set has even been made with them.
To these collectors Nixie tubes represent the pleasing aesthetics that modern technology is missing. Collectors, with their nostalgic fondness of the Nixie, want to start a revival of the Nixie technology. The tech genius Steve Wozniak has been seen wearing a Nixie watch and a popular anime Stein;Gate prominently displays nixie tubes on a plot critical instrument called the divergence meter. The Nixie tube may just be the most popular form of technology you do not know about.
Don’t close your history books just yet. After a gap of Nixie Tubes not being produced for decades, since the Soviet factories producing the tubes shut down with the fall of the Soviet Union, new Nixie tubes are beginning to be produced in a resurging revival. For example, Dalibor Farný of the Czech Republic has started a small manufacturer company which has successfully produced over 7,000 bulbs as of May, 2019. The market is far from saturated, with Ukrainian sellers selling Nixie Tubes hand over fist. Obviously, the market for these humble bulbs has proven its strength, as consumers have been buying out large warehouses of the ex-soviet bulbs and been able to support new production of these classy relics of the old world.
Breaking a Curse
The Nixie Tube is an old technology, that’s making a comeback for the sake of nostalgia and aesthetics. These tubes have broken the curse of old technology and have lived long past their heyday. The tube is fascinating, both technologically, aesthetically and socially. What is making people want to used what was once old and thrown away. Are people scared of change, do they long for the past? The new found popularity of the Nixie tube proves once again that people are nostalgic for the past and require both aesthetics and utility in the technology they use every day.
Image Attribution
“Warm Glow” by RadarRange is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
