B7971 Ultronics ticker display?

[Nick]

Pretty sure this is a B7971-based display, though not 100% certain - I've not seen this photo before - it could be a segmented incandescent display... the font looks right...

There are plenty of "distant" photos of such displays, but I've not seen one like this in close-up...

Thoughts?

Nick

[David Forbes]

Nick,

That looks similar to the Lectrascan, but it's not the same as the ones
that were used in stockbroker offices. They had two rows of tubes.

Here's a B-A catalog illustration from 1976:

http://www.nixiebunny.com/b7971ad.jpg

Scroll to the bottom of this page to see a complete Lectrascan unit and
a module as the B-A catalog shows.

http://www.tmk.com/mod-6-nixie/

On 1/22/15 7:51 AM, Nick wrote:
> Pretty sure this is a B7971-based display, though not 100% certain -

> I've not seen this photo before.

>
> There are plenty of "distant" photos of such displays, but I've not seen
> one like this in close-up...
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Nick

--
David Forbes, Tucson AZ

[Nick]

Yup - I've some of those Lectrascan units too - that's what interested me about this photo - they do look like B7971s, Jim, but not as we know them :)

Apologies - I've been wanting to use that line for years, and as you're twins, it almost works!

Nick

[Charles MacDonald]

On 15-01-22 11:50 AM, David Forbes wrote:
> Nick,
>
> That looks similar to the Lectrascan, but it's not the same as the ones
> that were used in stockbroker offices. They had two rows of tubes.

I am guessing that the units were set up to emulate the real "Ticker
tape" where the letters (LTRS) were on one row and the numbers and
symbols (FIGS) were on the other row.

ETCO in Montreal also had these in great quantity. I wish I had bought
more complete ones just for the sockets.

Note that many of the surplus cards had the connecting fingers
cut/broken off. they were gold plated contacts.

--
Charles MacDonald Stittsville Ontario
cm...@zeusprune.ca Just Beyond the Fringe
http://Charles.MacDonald.org/tubes
No Microsoft Products were used in sending this e-mail.

[petehand]

I say these are not B7971 displays. They are too large, and the segments are too fat for neon and not evenly lit. They have bright spots, as if lit from behind by incandescent lamps. I happen to have a similar incandescent lamp display, though smaller, made by IEEE.

On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 6:51:36 AM UTC-8, Nick wrote:

Pretty sure this is a B7971-based display, though not 100% certain - I've not seen this photo before - it could be a segmented incandescent display... the font looks right...

[Terry S]

I would agree, Pete.... The clue for me was the decimal points. There are none in B7971s, and these appear integral to the display.

Terry

[Nick]

On Saturday, 7 February 2015 03:47:03 UTC, Terry S wrote:

I would agree, Pete.... The clue for me was the decimal points. There are none in B7971s, and these appear integral to the display.

Well, I would disagree about the DPs - they could easily be NE-2s in holders. The size is an issue - the characters do seem large - it might be due to some crude 1970's photo editing - why would the electronic ticker be obscured by the tape tickers?

I suspect that this was a marketing photo showing how the electronic ticker was so much better than rows of paper tape (especially seeing as how the one she's reading has obviously recently jammed!), and that the image I posted is in fact a montage...

BTW. The woman is called "Sandy Zimmerman" according to https://www.flickr.com/photos/financemuseum/5035950375/ , and here's the thing....

...the photo comes from the archives of Sunguard PowerPartner.... which used to be called Ultronic Systems Corporation...

Suspicious? No?

Nick

[Nick]

Just spoken to a chap that worked for Quotron (competitor of Lectrascan) who submitted that photo - the image is a composite and the display is most probably a single height Lectrascan unit - note that each module contains 24 display positions, just like the double-height unit.

Nick