You might have seen these types of lighted signs hanging outside of businesses or on walls in your town. They are often called neon lights. They are named after one of the gases used to give them their characteristic glow.
Neon is a colorless, odorless gas that is found in Earth’s atmosphere. In the early 1900s, chemists figured out how to capture neon from the air. Soon after, they discovered that when the gas is enclosed in a glass tube and an electric current is passed through, the gas glows.
The term neon light is used to describe light produced by not only neon, but certain other gases as well. Neon lights are made by filling glass tubes with different noble gases. A noble gas is an element [a substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances through chemical reactions] that rarely reacts with other elements.
Different noble gases produce different colors of light, allowing artists to create designs with different colors. Neon produces red light, helium produces pink or yellow, krypton glows green or gray, argon produces blue or lavender, and xenon is blue or gray. Artists use combinations of different gases to create a variety of colors. They bend the glass tubes into different shapes to create advertisements and works of art.
Neon signs were found almost everywhere until the 1950s, when most were replaced with plastic. Plastic was considered to be more modern. Some places even banned neon signs. But today, neon signs are growing in popularity again.
What Do You Think? Why do you think neon signs are becoming more popular?
Photo Credit: Stefano Politi Markovina/Alamy Stock Photos
