B-7971 Alphanumeric Display Tube, 1965
samwibatt posted a photo: These large tubes are not, strictly speaking, nixies. I think. They are neon tubes, but instead of number-shaped electrodes which I believe define nixies, they have fourteen wires arranged like alphanumeric LED displays'. I got four of them sort of by accident - I put in a bid on an eBay auction for them, expecting to get sniped, and I didn't. Weird!
This type of tube was used for the big stock-ticker displays in the New York Stock Exchange around the early 1970s. I don't know if the ones I got were used there, but just for fun let's say they were.
The obligatory thing to build out of nixies, for the nixie geek set today, is a clock. With these tubes, it's the FLW - a device which shows Four Letter Words. The original FLW was built in 1973 by Raymond Weisling, and he has a page about their history. (Note: his site advertises FLWs for sale still, but don't order any - apparently even paid orders have gone unfilled for a couple years and no one can reach the seller for comment).
I will at some point at least make a FLW circuit with these tubes and post shots of it here; not sure if I'll make a permanent version.
