"Fleetie" wrote in message
...
Ah, yes. So it is. Just found a reference to it
as a caption to a pic in this wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_lamp


You found a good reference there. If you haven't already, check out the
footnotes at the bottom of the page. For those of us older than about 55,
the ne-2 was the hobby circuit element of the day. Owing to its voltage
difference where the gas would start to conduct (about 70V) and its
sustaining voltage (about 65V), it could be used in oscillators or bistable
logic. I remember making crude binary counters out of chains of them. far
less expensive and lower power than making flip flops from 12AX7s.
The other good use was as in John's (Fields and Waves) use where the neon
tube in proximity to any high voltage gradient will glow with an intensity
proportional to the field.