Neon signs home >> Neon sign articles >> The history of neon signs
Neon was discovered in the year 1898 by Scottish chemist William Ramsay and English chemist Morris Travers. Neon occurs naturally in the atmosphere but in very negligible quantities.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century two elements - nitrogen and oxygen - were discovered in air. For quite some time, scientists concluded that these two gases alone made up the air. This cannot be considered wholly untrue because nitrogen and oxygen make up more than 99 percent of air.
| After continuous research scientists were able to recognize that something else was also present in air besides nitrogen and oxygen. They realized that this element was part of the remaining one percent. In 1894, a third element called argon was discovered in air and argon content was about 0.934 percent. So, nitrogen, oxygen, and argon together made up about 99.966 percent of air. The answer to the remaining 0.034 percent of air content was found towards the fag end of the twentieth century. Five more inert gases were discovered in air and neon was one of them. |  |
This belated discovery may be attributed o the fact that appropriate scientific equipments were not available to identify fractional content of gases. But a new method, called spectroscopy, was later evolved to help detect presence of even small amounts of an element.  | In 1898, Ramsay and Travers researched on the presence of minute amount of gas that still remained undiscovered after oxygen, nitrogen, and argon were removed from air. Neon was discovered when Ramsay chilled a small sample of atmospheric air until it became a liquid. He heated the liquid and captured the gases as they boiled off. The three gases that emanated were krypton, xenon and neon. They heated the sample of gas and studied the spectrum produced by it. Ramsay and Travers found spectral lines they had never seen before. They went on to discover neon. The story goes that Ramsay's son was one of the first to know about the discovery. He suggested to his father the name 'novum' meaning "new." His father liked the idea, but chose the Greek word and thus the element was named neon. |
Neon lighting was invented much later by French chemist Georges Claude who showcased his first neon sign at the Paris Exposition held in1910. He is reported to have sold the first neon advertising sign to a barber in Paris two years later and the first neon advertising sign was put up by the latter in 1912. Georges Claude patented the neon lighting tube on Jan. 19th, 1915.
| In 1923, Georges Claude and his French company he established Claude Neon, introduced neon gas signs to the United States, by selling two pieces to a Packard car dealer in Los Angeles. Earle C. Anthony is supposed to have purchased the two signs reading "Packard" for. Neon lighting quickly became a popular fixture in outdoor advertising. Visible even in daylight, people would stop and stare at the first neon signs then described as 'liquid fire.' |  |
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