Editing Neon lamp (section)

=== Alphanumerical display ===
{{Main|Nixie tube}}
[[Image:Nixie2.gif|thumb |right |The digits of a [[Nixie tube]]. |alt=Sequence of ten photograph of a glass tube. Each photograph is shown for 1 second, and shows a red, glowing numeral. The photographs are presented in the series 0, 1, 2, ..., 9, and then sequence starts again at 0.]]

Neon lamps with several shaped electrodes were used as alphanumerical displays known as [[Nixie tube]]s. These have since been replaced by other display devices such as [[light emitting diode]]s, [[vacuum fluorescent display]]s, and [[liquid crystal display]]s.

Since at least the 1940s, argon, neon, and [[phosphor]]ed ''glow [[thyratron]]'' [[Flip-flop (electronics)|latching]] indicators (which would light up upon an impulse on their starter electrode and extinguish only after their anode voltage was cut) were available for example as self-displaying [[shift registers]] in large-format, crawling-text [[dot-matrix display]]s,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tubedata.milbert.com/sheets/013/z/ZC1050.pdf |title=Philips, 1968: ''ZC1050'' data sheet |access-date=10 May 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012022948/http://tubedata.milbert.com/sheets/013/z/ZC1050.pdf |archive-date=12 October 2013 }}</ref> or, combined in a 4×4, four-color phosphored-thyratron matrix, as a stackable 625-color RGBA pixel for large video graphics arrays.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.decadecounter.com/vta/pdf2/ITM2Mdatasheet.PDF |title=Melz, 1944: ''ИНДИКАТОР ИТМ2-М'' data sheet |access-date=9 May 2013 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012031227/http://www.decadecounter.com/vta/pdf2/ITM2Mdatasheet.PDF |archive-date=12 October 2013 }}</ref> Multiple-cathode and/or anode ''glow thyratrons'' called [[Dekatron]]s could count forwards and backwards while their count state was visible as a glow on one of the numbered cathodes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tubedata.milbert.com/sheets/022/g/GCA10G.pdf |title=ETL: ''GCA10G/GSA10G'' data sheet |access-date=10 May 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221541/http://tubedata.milbert.com/sheets/022/g/GCA10G.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}</ref> These were used as self-displaying [[Frequency divider#Digital dividers|divide-by-n counter/timer/prescalers]] in counting instruments, or as [[Adder (electronics)|adder/subtracters]] in [[Calculator#Development of electronic calculators|calculators]].