All-tube digital clock, seven years in the making
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/WtXlckIBIvNycwEJM7mWWw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTI4NA--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/Gx0AktDQ8qV.rIvubOiWEA--~B/aD0xNzE7dz00MjU7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/06/dixieeng.jpg)
Nixie clocks, which use little vacuum tubes to display the numbers, have been around for a while. Geeks build them, hipsters put them in their lofts, and they range from very cool to not so cool. Now Friedhelm Bruegmann, a member of the German Tube Collectors Association, has spent seven years of his life putting together an all-tube digital clock. Instead of a little quartz module, he uses 103 tubes to calculate and display the time. Yes, it looks like a small army of pointy silver-headed robots. No, it's not for sale, but Friedhelm's site is so detailed, you can probably hack one together yourself in a decade or so.
[Via Music Thing]