Estimate reading time: 2 minutes
I have just made first test with the glow tube I made yesterday.. It works, all seals seems to be vacuum tight, or at least good for my purposes (short-term test). It turned out that making the glow even along all the number is pretty difficult, I will have to form the anode grid flat and probably add a back plate. Or just add the back plate and remove the anode grid.
The gas used is argon, striking voltage around 350V.
This is a glow at lower pressure, I would guess somewhere around 1 torr, so it is not so bright as on another photos. However, it is easier to achieve much even glow at these pressures.
Nice bright glow, I will try to achieve this form of glow..
Overall view of the setup, the machine is my leak detector, I use it for pumping everything. Notice the needle valve and copper spiral, this is connected to a bottle with argon.