Content deleted Content added
added Brigitte Kowanz (the current representative of Austria at the 57. International Art Exhibition and pioneer in the field) to the list. See Bio on www.kowanz.com |
Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 2 as dead. #IABot (v1.6.1) (Feminist) |
||
Line 7:
The term can also refer to the miniature [[neon lamp|neon glow lamp]], developed in 1917, about seven years after neon tube lighting.<ref name=SI /> While neon tube lights are typically meters long, the neon lamps can be less than one centimeter in length and glow much more dimly than the tube lights. They are still in use as small indicator lights. Through the 1970s, neon glow lamps were widely used for numerical displays in electronics, for small decorative lamps, and as signal processing devices in circuity. While these lamps are now antiques, the technology of the neon glow lamp developed into contemporary [[plasma display]]s and [[televisions]].<ref name=Myers>{{cite book |title=Display interfaces: fundamentals and standards |last1=Myers |first1=Robert L. |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=2002 |pages=69–71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ilHvFwoAZDMC&pg=PA69 |isbn=978-0-471-49946-6 |quote=Plasma displays are closely related to the simple neon lamp.}}</ref><ref name=Weber>{{cite journal |last=Weber |first=Larry F. |authorlink=Larry F. Weber |journal=IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science |volume=34 |issue=2 |date=April 2006 |pages=268–278 |doi=10.1109/TPS.2006.872440|bibcode = 2006ITPS...34..268W |title=History of the plasma display panel }} Paid access.</ref>
Neon was discovered in 1898 by the British scientists [[William Ramsay]] and [[Morris W. Travers]]. After obtaining pure neon from the atmosphere, they explored its properties using an [[Geissler tube|"electrical gas-discharge" tube]] that was similar to the tubes used for neon signs today. [[Georges Claude]], a French engineer and inventor, presented neon tube lighting in essentially its modern form at the [[Paris Motor Show]] from December 3–18, 1910.<ref name=vanDulken>{{cite book |title=Inventing the 20th century: 100 inventions that shaped the world : from the airplane to the zipper |last1=van Dulken |first1=Stephen |last2= |first2= |page=42 |publisher=New York University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8147-8812-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVHRRoQvW60C&pg=PA42}}</ref><ref name=Poster>The dates of the 1910 Paris Motor Show are incorporated into [[:Image:12eSalondelAutomobile.jpg|this poster]] for the show.</ref><ref name=Testelin>{{cite web |title=Reportage - Il était une fois le néon No. 402 |last=Testelin |first=Xavier |url=http://www.xaviertestelin.com/photo-402.html |accessdate=2010-12-06 }} Claude lit the [[peristyle]] of the ''[[Grand Palais]]'' in Paris with neon tubes; this webpage includes a contemporary photograph that gives an impression of the effect. The webpage is part of an extensive selection of images of neon lighting; see {{cite web |title=Reportage - Il était une fois le néon |url=http://www.xaviertestelin.com/sujet-6.html}}</ref> Claude, sometimes called "the [[Thomas Alva Edison|Edison]] of France",<ref name=Time45>{{cite news |title=FRANCE: Paranoia? |work=Time Magazine |date=July 9, 1945 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,852306,00.html }}</ref> had a near monopoly on the new technology, which became very popular for signage and displays in the period 1920-1940. Neon lighting was an important cultural phenomenon in the United States in that era;<ref name="O'Toole">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/04/travel/where-neon-art-comes-of-age.html |title=Where Neon Art Comes of Age |last=O'Toole |first= Lawrence |work=The New York Times |date=February 4, 1990 |quote=Americans, oddly, aren't so crazy about neon as the Japanese and the Europeans, although it could be argued that neon, discovered by the French inventor Georges Claude in 1910, is largely an American phenomenon.}} As explained in this article, Claude did not discover neon.</ref> by 1940, the downtowns of nearly every city in the US were bright with neon signage, and [[Times Square]] in New York City was known worldwide for its neon extravagances.<ref>{{cite web |title=A visual history of Times Square spectaculars |last=Cutler |first=Alan |date=Summer 2007 |url=http://www.si.edu/opa/insideresearch/articles/V17_TimesSquare.html |publisher=The Smithsonian Institution |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620172251/http://www.si.edu/opa/insideresearch/articles/V17_TimesSquare.html |archivedate=2010-06-20 |df= }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Times Square Spectacular: Lighting Up Broadway |last=Tell |first=Darcy |year=2007 |publisher=Harper-Collins |isbn=978-0-06-088433-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NwaLWFSG3rcC }}</ref> There were 2000 shops nationwide designing and fabricating neon signs.<ref name=Stern>{{cite book |last=Stern |first=Rudi |title=The New Let There Be Neon |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-8109-1299-1 |publisher=H. N. Abrams |pages=16–33}}</ref><ref name=Bright>{{cite book |title=The Electric-Lamp Industry |year=1949 |last=Bright, Jr. |first=Arthur A. |publisher=MacMillan |pages=369–374}}</ref> The popularity, intricacy, and scale of neon signage for advertising declined in the U.S. following the Second World War (1939–1945), but development continued vigorously in Japan, Iran, and some other countries.<ref name=Stern /> In recent decades architects and artists, in addition to sign designers, have again adopted neon tube lighting as a component in their works.<ref name=Stern /><ref name=Popper>{{cite web |last=Popper |first=Frank |authorlink=Frank Popper |title=Neon |year=2009 |work=[[Grove Art Online]] |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=http://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?theme_id=10130 }}</ref><ref name=Thielen>{{cite journal |last=Thielen |first=Marcus |title=Happy Birthday Neon! |journal=Signs of the Times |date=August 2005 |url=http://www.signmuseum.net/histories/happybirthdayneon.asp }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
Neon lighting is closely related to [[fluorescent lighting]], which developed about 25 years after neon tube lighting.<ref name=Bright /> In fluorescent lights, the light emitted by rarefied gases within a tube is used exclusively to excite fluorescent materials that coat the tube, which then shine with their own colors that become the tube's visible, usually white, glow. Fluorescent coatings and glasses are also an option for neon tube lighting, but are usually selected to obtain bright colors.<!--Technically, fluorescents are hot-cathode devices, and neon lights are cold-cathode devices. They have rather different transformers/ballasts, and somewhat different lifetimes in use. A discussion in Bright also suggests that the distinction we draw today may derive from a licensing agreement between Claude Neon Light and General Electric in 1938 that separated the markets for interior lighting, including fluorescent, from exterior lighting, which was dominated by the fashion for neon signage at that time.-->
Line 18:
Immediately following neon's discovery, neon tubes were used as scientific instruments and novelties.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fleming |first=J. A. |authorlink=John Ambrose Fleming |title=The Propagation of Electric Waves along Spiral Wires, and on an Appliance for Measuring the Length of Waves Used in Wireless Telegraphy |journal=Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science: Sixth Series |volume=8 |issue=46 |date=October 1904 |page=417 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJEOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA419}} Fleming used a tube of neon, without electrodes, to explore the amplitudes of radiofrequency waves by examining the intensity of the tube's light emission. He had obtained his neon directly from its discoverer, Ramsay.</ref> However, the scarcity of purified neon gas precluded its prompt application for electrical gas-discharge lighting along the lines of [[Moore tube]]s, which used more common [[nitrogen]] or [[carbon dioxide]] as the working gas, and enjoyed some commercial success in the US in the early 1900s.<ref name=SI>{{cite web |title=Lamp Inventors 1880-1940: Moore Lamp |publisher=The Smithsonian Institution |url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/bios/moore.htm}}</ref><ref name=Bright2>{{cite book |title=The Electric-Lamp Industry |year=1949 |last=Bright, Jr. |first=Arthur A. |publisher=MacMillan |pages=221–223}}</ref> After 1902, [[Georges Claude]]'s company in France, [[Air Liquide]], began producing industrial quantities of neon as a byproduct of the air liquefaction business. From December 3–18, 1910, Claude demonstrated two large ({{convert|12|m|ft|adj=on}} long), bright red neon tubes at the [[Paris Motor Show]].<ref name=vanDulken /><ref name=Poster />
[[File:Modern vegas vic souvenirs.JPG|thumb|upright|left|[[Vegas Vic]], a {{convert|40|ft|m}} tall [[neon sign]] built in 1951 for the Pioneer Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sign, built by the [[Young Electric Sign Company]], shows the elaborate artistic effects that can be achieved.<ref>{{cite book |title=Nevada Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff |first=Richard |last=Moreno |publisher=Globe Pequot |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7627-4682-8 |page=1880 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DcRC49IOMpwC&pg=PA1880 }}</ref> |alt=Photograph of a large painted sign in the form of a cowboy. The cowboy is winking his eye. His left hand is lifted, and he's pointing that thumb towards the building to his right. A lighted cigarette dangles from the corner of his mouth. He's wearing a cowboy hat, boots, and a scarf. Glowing neon tubes highlight the outlines.]]
These neon tubes were essentially in their contemporary form.<ref name=Stern /><ref name=Strattman1>{{cite journal |title=The Luminous Tube: An illuminating description of how neon signs operate |last=Strattman |first=Wayne |year=1997 |work=Signs of the Times |url=http://www.strattman.com/articles/luminoustubes.html |accessdate=2010-12-10}}</ref><ref name=Strattman>{{cite book |title=Neon Techniques: Handbook of Neon Sign and Cold-Cathode Lighting (4th edition) |last=Strattman |first=Wayne|year=1997 |publisher=ST Media Group International |isbn=978-0-944094-27-3}}</ref> The range of outer diameters for the glass tubing used in neon lighting is 9 to 25 mm; with standard electrical equipment, the tubes can be as long as {{convert|30|m|ft}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=ANSI Luminous Tube Footage Chart |url=http://www.allanson.com/wp-content/uploads/Product_PDFs/ANSI_Luminous_footage.pdf |publisher=[[American National Standards Institute]] (ANSI) |accessdate=2012-06-01}} Reproduction of a chart in the catalog of a lighting company in Toronto; the original ANSI specification is not given.</ref> The pressure of the gas inside is in the range 3-20 [[Torr]] (0.4-3 kPa), which corresponds to a partial vacuum in the tubing. Claude had also solved two technical problems that substantially shortened the working life of neon and some other gas discharge tubes,<ref name=Claude1913>{{cite journal |last=Claude |first=Georges |title=The Development of Neon Tubes |journal=The Engineering Magazine |date=November 1913 |pages=271–274 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=erpMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA271#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref> and effectively gave birth to a neon lighting industry. In 1915 a US patent was issued to Claude covering the design of the electrodes for gas-discharge lighting;<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=1125476 |title=Systems of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes |invent1=Georges Claude |gdate=1915-01-19 |fdate=1911-11-09}} See [http://inventors.about.com/od/weirdmuseums/ig/History-of-Neon-Light-Gallery/Neon-Lamp-Patent-Drawing.htm reproduction of patent.]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> this patent became the basis for the monopoly held in the US by his company, Claude Neon Lights, for neon signs through the early 1930s.<ref>{{cite news |title=Claude Neon Lights Wins Injunction Suit: Also Gets Rights to Recover Profits and Damages Resulting From Patent Infringement |work=The New York Times |date=November 28, 1928}} Paid access.</ref>
Claude's patents envisioned the use of gases such as [[argon]] and [[mercury vapor]] to create different colors beyond those produced by neon. In the 1920s, fluorescent glasses and coatings were developed to further expand the range of colors and effects for tubes with argon gas or argon-neon mixtures; generally, the fluorescent coatings are used with an argon/mercury-vapor mixture, which emits [[ultraviolet]] light that activates the fluorescent coatings.<ref name=Bright /> By the 1930s, the colors from combinations of neon tube lights had become satisfactory for some general interior lighting applications, and achieved some success in Europe, but not in the US.<ref name=Bright /> Since the 1950s, the development of phosphors for color televisions has created nearly 100 new colors for neon tube lighting.<ref name=Thielen />
| |||