Yes, that $265 price is in 1969 dollars, the MV2 was insanely expensive when it was released. The MV2 was not really usable as an indicator though... it can only be seen in a darkened room. The only evidence I have ever found of them being used was in scientific experiments in the late 1960s. I have not been able to pin down a good price for what MV1s sold for in single quantities, but a 1968 price list I read listed them at $18 dollars each in quantites of 1000. It is my understanding that most of the assembly for these was done by hand... I have read accounts that say the dies were placed in the LEDs manually with a pair of tweezers.
The ones I am selling are not in the original packaging, they were found in a plastic sack with the word "MV1" written on it in marker. I also checked them under a microscope and they have the same die and internal construction as an MV1 I have that was still in it's original Monsanto packaging. On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 4:29:31 PM UTC-4, Terry Kennedy wrote: > > > > Do you know what the list price for this was back in 1968? Your MV2 > article says "a new MV2 was approximately $265 dollars in 1969". Was > that expressed in 1969 dollars, or in current dollars? If in 1969 dollars, > that was a HUGE sum - for the more youthful people here, you could buy any > one of a number of number of brand new mid-range cars (and even some sports > cars like the Opel GT were in that range) for the low $3000's, and a VW > Beetle was only $1699. > > How much of the production was hand assembly (you show several production > failures in your article)? Do you know if they ever automated the line any > further? I worked at a factory in the mid-1970's that produced bases for > crystal cans, and that was all done by hand although the leads were > purchased as pre-forms. One of the factory's biggest sellers was the base > for the Motorola 3.58MHz crystal that was used in many television sets. > > Moving back on-topic, are the ones you have for sale loose pieces, in the > original clamshell, or in the later plastic bag? > -- 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/e7bde41b-3c2d-4f79-a1b1-f6a0eb1d5f34%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.