Many nixie types have a mercury "giver" of one sort or another. A few nixie types have a "getter" in addition to or instead of a giver. The getter is only intended to scavenge oxygen and similarly reactive impurities and has no effect (or a minor effect whose parameters are known and compensated for) on the gases intentionally included in the tube. Unlike those in used other electron tubes, the getters used in nixies generally did not produce a large patch of silver color on the envelope. Mercury generally does not darken or silver the surface of glass in a uniform manner, though occasionally nixies with mercury will have a little too much and some droplets can get stuck on the glass. Nixies without mercury or with very little mercury can have their glass and other structures slightly darkened or silvered by the "burning in" procedure that was run for several dozens of hours after they were made. Heavily darkened or silvered glass, to the extent that lit figures are noticeably dimmed or uneven, generally indicates a nixie that has been abused or is at or near end-of-life.
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