How Does Neon Work?
The term "NEON" has become a generalized term to describe any brightly colored gas discharge lamp that is bent into letters or designs. Neon is actually an inert gas that fills a glass tube, and glows reddish-orange when electric current is passed through it. Argon gas is also used in the production of "neon" signs, and glows blue. Nonetheless, "NEON" is the brightest, most versatile, cost-effective, and eye-catching way to write in light.
Unlike an incandescent bulb which has a filament that can burn out, neon lights have no filament, and have a typical life span of 7 to 10 years, and some have been known to last for 20 years! Neon lights operate on relatively high voltage, but very low amperage (high pressure, but very low volume). Imagine a garden hose with only a trickle of water. Put your thumb over the end, and it comes out with more force, but you use much less water. Just like water pressure, a transformer is needed to increase the electrical pressure to the required current to make the gas inside the tube "glow". Even though neon operates at a higher voltage, the transformer does all the work, thus keeping your electrical load low.
Where do neon lights get their color?
The wide variety of colors available in neon are created in three ways, or any combination of the three.
1. Inert gas.
We use 2 inert gasses, neon and argon/mercury. Neon gives off a reddish-orange color, while argon/mercury is a light blue.
2. Fluorescent powders.
Many neon tubes are coated on the inside with fluorescent powders that filter out different colors from the light spectrum. In combination with the different gasses, an even greater number of colors are achieved. For instance, a green tube, filled with argon/mercury (blue gas) will light up green. Fill the same tube with neon (red gas) and it lights up orange. Likewise a blue tube, filled with blue gas will light up blue, and the same blue tube filled with red gas will light up pink.
3. Colored glass.
Finally, the use of colored "classic" glass is an old world method which achieves the most vivid colors (reddest reds, deepest blues, etc.) but they are not as bright as other neon. They are also more costly, so are not used as widely for signs as they once were. However, for neon artwork, they are unparalleled in beauty.
History of Neon
In 1910, inventor Georges Claude produced the first neon light in France, which he displayed at the Grand Palais in Paris. His invention was patented in 1915, and in 1923 the first commercial neon sign came to America at a Packard automobile dealership in Los Angeles.
It attracted so much attention, that the benefits for signage were undeniable. Nothing catches the eye like neon, and it has been the most effective medium for signs all over the world ever since.
Toward the end of the 1950's, as many of the old neon sign craftsmen were retiring, the neon industry could not keep up with demand, and other forms of signage became popular using new plastics, and fluorescent bulbs. While the initial cost of these newer types of electrical signs was cheap, fluorescent bulb life is very short which greatly increases maintenance costs over the life of a sign. Because neon tubes last for many years, are so much brighter, create more eye appeal, and can be bent to any shape, the demand stayed high. To fill this demand, new craftspeople were trained and neon rose again to become the most effective medium for electric signs.
Today the manufacturing process remains basically the same. Each tube is hand made, heated to a pliable state by fire with a gas torch, bent to shape, blown out, then laid on a heat-proof pattern for final adjustments before it cools and becomes hard again.
The mechanical equipment required to purify and process the tube into a vacuum tube has improved greatly, thus improving the quality and life of modern neon.
Neon was identified as a new element by spectroscopy, which reveals the gas' characteristic set of spectral lines. Like the rest of the inert gas family, which includes krypton, xenon, and radon as well as argon and helium, neon is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and resists the formation of compounds with other elements. It occurs naturally in the atmosphere, from which it is produced for commercial purposes, and can be found in trace amounts in natural gas, minerals, and meteorites.
Neon beacons can be seen for up to 20 mi. (32 km) and are used for airplane guidance. Small neon tubes are used in voltage-testing devices and as indicators on appliances and electronic instrument panels. In industry, neon is a useful low-temperature refrigerant, particularly because it is hard to vaporize. Its cooling temperature range is suitable for certain infrared detectors and lasers. Neon tube devices protect electric motors from overloading in case of a power surge, and the gas is also used in lightning arrestors, electron tubes, and Geiger counters. The most common gas laser uses a mixture of neon and helium.
Experiments have shown that certain properties of neon may also lend themselves to use in special breathing mixtures for space travelers and deep-sea divers. Helium shares these properties, but unlike helium, neon does not distort a person's voice. Also, neon conducts heat less readily, so that a diver would lose less heat to the surrounding water. Another special property of neon is that when liquefied, it is more compact than other liquefied gases. This has important applications for cryogenic refrigerants. In space travel or other cases where compactness is critical, neon could find new uses as a convenient transport and storage fluid. Substantial amounts of neon are already used in physics research for detecting the motion of nuclear particles; neon displays their paths with a trail of sparks as they pass through the detection chamber.