This Edge Lit 481 Digital Voltmeter Display totally makes me want to build a clock with this mechanism. Can you imagine talking a measurement with this meter that oscillates, it would make a ton of noise. I can see this being great help if you were siting on a stable reading and waiting for something to avalanche.
Via: Hackaday
“These early NLS digital meters used a resistor dividing network and stepper relays to select the display digits. If you see one of these in operation you will hear a lot of mechanical relay noise as the range and digits are selected.”