The RCA manual mentions several gas filled tubes, some of which are called "glow discharge tubes" and others not, but none are specifically identified as mercury vapor tubes.
The reason I care about mercury vapor tubes is that I am under the impression that the density of the vapor can be controlled by heating the tube. The reason I think that is that at room temperature the mercury would be a liquid, and as the temperature goes up, there is more mercury vapor and less liquid. With noble gas tubes, one wouldn't be able to control the pressure of the gas.
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Ignorantly,
Allan Adler
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