GAS TUBE REGISTER UNIT, 1950's

S.T.C. Gas Tube Register Unit, consisting of eight P.C.B, s with 130 tubes and 3 Valves all mounted in a metal frame, all the work is handmade The basic active components are the G1/236G which is a Cold Cathode Gas filled Triode, or Trigger Tube. Which was made by S.T.C in 1955 according to their Data Sheet. This is basically an electronic switch, which can be turned on and turned off, when on it may glow like a simple neon lamp. The other active component is a Brimar 5965 which is a miniature Double Diode from 1958, this is also used as a switch in computer and timing applications at very high speed, here they may be used as an oscillator to drive the system. As the title suggests the unit was for storing or registering data in a Telephone exchange system, not a complete computer and it does not have programmable possibilities. As each tube can only store one BIT of information its capacity would be very small considering today's computers which can handle billions of bit's at much faster speeds, during this period computers were still in there infancy, this unit is just one step up from the Worlds first computers using cold cathode tubes instead of heated valves, as in the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) and Collossus computer of the 1940's. All this would change, as the Transistor would replace the Valve, culminating in the Large Scale Integration (LSI) of Transistors into Integrated circuits that would reduce the heat and size of the systems we have today. The picture shows the unit upside down in order to show the wiring.

Nortel Collection

A1784