Neon lighting

Neon lighting produces light by passing electric current through low-pressure neon gas sealed in glass tubes. Its characteristic glow is red-orange; other tube colors use different gases or coatings.

Gas-discharge lamp: A lamp that produces light by passing an electric current through ionized gas. Neon lighting is one distinctive form of illumination by electrical discharge through gas.
Glassblowing: A glass-forming technique that shapes softened glass by inflating it with air. Tube benders heat and shape glass to make the letters and outlines used in neon signs.
Georges Claude: A French engineer and inventor who developed practical neon lighting and introduced it commercially. Claude adapted neon discharge tubes into a durable, marketable lighting system.
Times Square: A major commercial intersection and entertainment district in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its dense illuminated signs made neon a defining feature of urban nighttime imagery.
LED: A semiconductor device that emits light when electric current passes through it. LEDs can imitate neon's appearance while using a different light-producing mechanism.
Neon: A chemical element and noble gas whose excited atoms emit red-orange light. Neon atoms produce the signature color when electrical discharge excites them.
Phosphor: A material that emits light after absorbing energy, including ultraviolet radiation. Phosphor coatings convert ultraviolet emissions inside some gas-filled tubes into visible colors.
Heinrich Geissler: A German glassblower and physicist known for developing evacuated glass discharge tubes in the nineteenth century. Geissler tubes demonstrated luminous gas discharges before commercial neon signs existed.
Las Vegas Strip: A stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard known for casinos, hotels, and large-scale illuminated displays. Neon signage helped establish the Strip's vivid commercial identity.
Incandescent light bulb: An electric lamp that emits light by heating a filament until it glows. Incandescent lamps produce light from a hot solid rather than an ionized gas.

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