In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in December 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.While they are used worldwide, neon signs were popular in the United States from about the 1920s to 1950s.The installations in Times Square, many originally designed by Douglas Leigh, were famed, and there were nearly 2,000 small shops producing neon signs by 1940.In addition to signage, neon lighting is used frequently by artists and architects,and (in a modified form) in plasma display panels and televisions.The signage industry has declined in the past several decades, and cities are now concerned with preserving and restoring their antique neon signs.
Light emitting diode arrays can be formed to simulate the appearance of neon lamps.
Neon tube signs are produced by the craft of bending glass tubing into shapes. A worker skilled in this craft is known as a glass bender, neon bender or tube bender. The neon tube is made out of 4 or 5-foot long straight sticks of hollow glass sold by sign suppliers to neon shops worldwide, where they are manually assembled into individual custom designed and fabricated lamps.
"Neon" is used to denote the general type of lamp, but neon gas is only one of the types of tube gases principally used in commercial application. Pure neon gas is used to produce only about one-third of the colors (mostly shades of red and orange, and some warmer or more intense shades of pink). The greatest number of colors (including all shades of blue, yellow, green, violet, and white, as well as some cooler or softer shades of pink) produced by filling with another inert gas, argon, and a drop of mercury (Hg) which is added to the tube immediately after purification. When the tube is ionized by electrification, the mercury evaporates into mercury vapor, which fills the tube and produces strong ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet light thus produced excites the various phosphor coatings designed to produce different colors. Even though this class of neon tubes use no neon at all, they are still denoted as "neon." Mercury-bearing lamps are a type of cold-cathode fluorescent lamps.
So ,In the traditional sense, The real material of neon sign is glass tube like the right image :
Welcome to check the link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_sign if you would like to know more history of neon signs
Post time: Sep-23-2022