Abstract: The invention relates to a gas discharge switch with a low-pressure gas discharge segment, which is provided with an anode and at least one main cathode, and arranged in an ionizable working gas. It is provided with a control unit for flow discharge, which contains a cathode. For the working gas, a gas storage with automatic pressure control is provided. According to the invention, the energy of glow discharge is provided as the setting value for regulating the pressure of the working gas. With this module (30), consisting of the cathode (31) for glow discharge with the gas storage (32), the pressure of the working gas, preferably hydrogen, remains at least approximately constant over a long period of time, in a closed system of this so-called pseudo-spark switch.

Abstract: In a pictorial display device containing a matrix of gas discharge cells in which discharge path is divided into an auxiliary discharge space for operation with low voltage, followed by a second space with short path length and high field intensity for accelerating the electrons, the cathode is subdivided into subcathodes with each of which a group of auxiliary anodes is associated to obtain a narrow, approximately wedge-shaped gas discharge which is fired and passed on line by line.