"ajp166" <ajp166(a)bellatlantic.net> wrote: Hmm. I saw an interesting display device at a friend's the other day, in some sort of Genrad whatsit that he was getting ready to scrap. (He's keeping the display digits though.) Each digit is a box with a bunch of tiny incandescent bulbs mounted in the back; each bulb illuminates one layer of plastic at the front; these layers are stacked and each has a digit (or other symbol, e.g. decimal point) etched in it (as a bunch of etched dots). There's a diagram on the side of each digit-box that indicates which bulb illuminates which digit or symbol. Anybody got any ideas about this thing? His speculation is that somebody didn't want to pay for nixies (but he's amazed at what these things must have cost to build in comparison), mine is that they wanted something nicer than a column of digits 0-9 with a bulb behind each. -Frank McConnell