History of Neon

Neon signs were once the calling card of virtually every diner and motel that popped up along the twists and turns of America's most famous roads. With a look that at the same time was both alluring and gaudy, this modern day version of the roadside sign reached it's peak during the heydays of the 50's and early 60's.


The word neon was coined from the Greek "neos", which means new gas.


But what about it's grand beginning? You can blame its start on the renown scientist Nikola Tesla, who unveiled his neon lamp sign at the 1893 World Fair in Chicago. Tesla's lamp borrowed elements of German physicists' Heinrich Geissler's famous electrical tubes.


Building upon the shoulder of this genius, the French chemist Georges Claude then developed the "neon sign." Claude achieved this by passing a small electric current through an inert gas to produce a light within a glass tube.


Claude also discovered that the tubes that held the gaseous mixture could easily be twisted and shaped to make the letters and pictures we are all accustomed to. George Claude unveiled this modern day innovation in lighting at the 1910 Paris Expo.   Viva le neon!