Description
Four Soviet Nixie tubes in a block of American black walnut with the corners taken off.
The tubes
Four genuine IN-14 Nixie tubes, made in Soviet factories more than thirty-five years ago and never used since. Each digit is a shaped wire cathode lit end to end — an orange nobody has managed to fake with an LED. They sit in sockets rather than solder, so when one eventually goes you pull it out and push the next one in, in about a minute, with no tools. One spare ships in the box, so the first replacement costs you nothing.
The case
Solid American black walnut, rounded on every corner and finished with Danish oil, so it sits on a desk like a river stone rather than a box. About 300 g — heavy enough to stay where you put it.
Living with it
A motion sensor rests the tubes when the room is empty, which is what turns a few years of tube life into many. Temperature and humidity appear between the time, the backlight runs the full colour range or switches off entirely, and there is an alarm if you would rather wake to orange glow than to a phone screen. A backup battery keeps the time through a power cut.
Built by hand in Kyiv and covered for twelve months: if a tube fails inside that year, the replacement is free.
ADVANTAGES
Replaceable Nixie Tubes
Motion Sensor
One Spare Nixie Tube Included
Visual Effects
Precision and Reliability
Description
Four Soviet Nixie tubes in a block of American black walnut with the corners taken off.
The tubes
Four genuine IN-14 Nixie tubes, made in Soviet factories more than thirty-five years ago and never used since. Each digit is a shaped wire cathode lit end to end — an orange nobody has managed to fake with an LED. They sit in sockets rather than solder, so when one eventually goes you pull it out and push the next one in, in about a minute, with no tools. One spare ships in the box, so the first replacement costs you nothing.
The case
Solid American black walnut, rounded on every corner and finished with Danish oil, so it sits on a desk like a river stone rather than a box. About 300 g — heavy enough to stay where you put it.
Living with it
A motion sensor rests the tubes when the room is empty, which is what turns a few years of tube life into many. Temperature and humidity appear between the time, the backlight runs the full colour range or switches off entirely, and there is an alarm if you would rather wake to orange glow than to a phone screen. A backup battery keeps the time through a power cut.
Built by hand in Kyiv and covered for twelve months: if a tube fails inside that year, the replacement is free.