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discharge tube

noun Electronics.
  1. gas tube.
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Origin of discharge tube

First recorded in 1895–1900
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for discharge tube

Historical Examples

  • This is regulated by nipping the discharge-tube with the spring clothes pin supplied for the purpose.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882

    Various

British Dictionary definitions for discharge tube

discharge tube

noun
  1. electronics an electrical device in which current flow is by electrons and ions in an ionized gas, as in a fluorescent light or neon tube
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
discharge tube in Science

discharge tube

  1. A closed vessel having electrodes at either end and containing a gas at low pressure. When a sufficient voltage is applied to the electrodes, an electric current flows through the gas. Discharge tubes can be used to prevent current flow below a certain voltage; they can also function as lamps by the use of ionizing gas, which glows when current flows through the tube.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.