National catalog from 1986

[bogdan paduraru]

Hello all
I think this might be useful

[Instrument Resources of America]

Bogdan

            Thank you. Much appreciated.


Ira.

[Tom Katt]

Thanks!

And damn!  They sure weren't giving these tubes away!  I figured they cost a bit, but never guessed they would be that expensive.  My NL8422 tubes are listed at $48.15 each, which works out to be about $147 in today's US dollars...

[Oskar]

Have a similar catalog from 1966 from Baird Atomic (probably NL tubes). Multiply prices by ten to adjust for inflation.

[Nicholas Stock]

I'm RICH! 

🤣

Bogdan, do you have a PDF version of the document you can share? That's a useful list of all the variants...

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[Tom Katt]

I suspect there was quite a bit of hand work involved in manufacturing these tubes - I've seen YT videos of even 'regular' hot cathode tubes and there are benches and benches of women assembling the innards with tweezers and magnifying glasses before the tube goes through any automation to be evacuated and sealed...

[bogdan paduraru]

I could trade some 40225 for some 7094s 🫥

@Nick, only these photos , no pdf,but I will try to get de physical catalogue .

I realy hope that more similar documents will surface 

On 7 Aug 2026, at 18:45, Tom Katt <tomk...@gmail.com> wrote:

I suspect there was quite a bit of hand work involved in manufacturing these tubes - I've seen YT videos of even 'regular' hot cathode tubes and there are benches and benches of women assembling the innards with tweezers and magnifying glasses before the tube goes through any automation to be evacuated and sealed...

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[Leroy Jones]

I remember those days!    Nixies priced in the $30 to $200 range in those catalogs.  My first significant stash of National nixies still brand new in boxes came from Antique Electronic

Supply in Arizona south Phoenix suburb.   I had called them on the phone and had asked about nixies.   He had a bunch.   I ordered some and had them shipped.   Lots of rare oddities.

NL803, NL5971, NL807 and many others.   Then a few years later my work sent me to Phoenix for training on their GTD-5 telephone central office switching exchange.   While there I drove the rental

car down to Antique Electronics one Saturday, walked in and introduced myself.   Told them I was the nixie tube guy from FL.   "Right this way back here".......and he lead me straight back to the stockroom

shelves and he said "This is everything we have, help yourself!"..........So I took an empty large cardbaord box and started filling it.   Grabbed all NL807 they had (20+ tubes), a few more NL803s and various and sundry

others.  Cleaned them out pretty well.  I realize now 30 years later that I really should have just cleared their shelf and got everything.   The fact that I left even one tube behind is a sign that I was still new at this at that time!

And to respond to the question about doing math by hand with pencil and paper, yes, I keep that skill fresh and active by doing it frequently all the time.   Only in the most complicated events involving a long column of numbers

will I reach for calculator.   It also depends on how tired or well rested I am at the time.   If tired and in a hurry, I just grab trusty HP-15C and let it help me out.

[bogdan paduraru]



Did you grab some unusual stuff back then? Maybe some unseen nixies?

On 7 Aug 2026, at 20:21, Leroy Jones <leroypu...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Robert G. Schaffrath]

As I recall, brand new B7971's from Burroughs were not cheap either and I wonder what kind of deal Ultronics got for buying them in bulk and branding them with their own name.

In 1979 I bought six NOS B7971's for $5/each from Meshna Electronics. Used pulls were $4/each but I decided to splurge and spend an extra $6 which is equivalent to about an extra $36 now. Someone took a loss in the difference between what they cost originally.

[Dekatron42]

In August 1968, the B5971 was USD $16.75, the B8091 was $20 and the B7971 was $18, later that year in December the prices were $30, $28.25 and $15.85.

B5092, B5992, B6091 were priced similarly between USD $15-$20.

The "Low Cost" series with the B5750/B5850 series of Nixies were half that price, around USD $7! The B54XX series was similarly priced as the "Low Cost" series.

Most sockets cost around half a dollar up to one dollar each.

/Martin