On Thursday, 4 July 2013 21:50:43 UTC+1, Matthew Cameron wrote: > The neat thing is that if nixie tube production becomes continuous again, > we will not need the long life that mercury provides. > Maybe I am being too hopeful, but I think that smaller groups > manufacturing their own stuff will become easier in the coming > decades, not harder.
Without Hg doping, a tube's life is very short. As these tubes are essentially individually hand built and not mass-produced, the estimated per-piece price is well over USD 100. The process is complex and labour-intensive. Nobody is going to be very happy at paying that sort of money for a tube to use in a clock that has to be replaced every year. Realistically, Hg doping is the way forward (as it was in the past as well...) Nick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/afffa90c-ab2a-46d1-aec9-c3b2445837a0%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
