Ken Shirriff on Nostr: The tube is not exactly a vacuum tube since it has a bit of xenon gas inside. It is ...

The tube is not exactly a vacuum tube since it has a bit of xenon gas inside. It is called a thyratron: when it turns on, the xenon ionizes, allowing a large current to flow through the tube. In the IBM 604, thyratron tubes provided high-current pulses to the electromagnets to punch holes in cards.