Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Friday, October 11, 2024
Here’s How Neon Lights Work
TwistedSifter: We might have moved on from our collective obsession with neon lights here in America (though if you have kids, I assure you they have not gotten over it), but they do still have a place and a purpose.
6 comments:
Ella S
said...
I didn’t know that neon glows red but can be different colors depending on the shape and tint of the glass - that’s super interesting! I knew vaguely how neon lights work but I didn’t know how the different colors worked. My main impression is that neon lights are expensive; I was working on a play once (Marie Antoinette but like a funky version with some funky creative unusual design) were the director wanted a LET THEM EAT CAKE neon sign built into a gray brick wall, and we definitely were not about to buy a custom neon sign since this was at my very small high school, so what we ended up doing was routing the letters into a piece of wood that became the “lid” to a light box with LEDs in it, and then getting a heat gun and those super chunky glue sticks and we melted the glue sticks enough to be sticky ish and lay them in the holes cut in the ply. When the LEDs inside the box were turned on, the gluesticks glowed and it actually looked pretty much like a neon sign more or less. The sign then went on to hang in the AP US History classroom for many years after and I think it is still there :)
Before reading this article, I never thought much about neon lights and the fact that it uses neon (crazy I know). I found this article to be very informative and super interesting to read. I think it’s crazy that they can last up to 40 years. I never knew that the default color of neon lights is red. That does make sense to me, especially when I picture a neon light, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the shape and tint of the glass is what changes the color. I wonder, when they talk about the shape of the glass, does the diameter of the tube change the color?
This is super cool, I had no idea how neon lights work. I find this super interesting because I think the science behind lighting is super cool and fun. They are a lot more complex than I thought, and can last a really, really long time. 30 to 40 years is an insane amount of time for a neon light to last. I also found it so interesting that the shape of the glass that the photons flow through helps determine the color of light that is seen. I do not own any neon lights, but I do own led lights, projector lights, and fairy lights and they make a super cool addition to my room, so I think I should add neon lights to the mix. These lights are also super old, they were created over 100 years ago which is so crazy and so cool. This was very interesting to learn about.
This was a pretty interesting informational article about the inner workings of neon lights. Georges Claude, a French engineer, incorporated neon gas into a sign in 1912, making it the first neon sign. With electricity flowing through a glass tube, electrons speed up and break their orbit. This causes positively charged ions to bounce around in the tube. The excess energy caused by this phenomenon is carried away by photons that cause the red glow - though the light can appear differently depending on the glass used. This also isn’t limited to neon. It can occur with argon, helium, and xenon, too. I didn’t know that neon lights could last for up to 40 years (though that isn’t very common). I love seeing neon lights in theatrical productions, too - it really strengthens the setting from a visual standpoint.
Going into this article I had some idea of how neon lights worked but it was interesting to continue to read about the history and science behind neon. I have fond memories of visiting the neon graveyard in Las Vegas and understand how important these lights are to the entertainment industry. We all know about the noble gasses and how remarkable stable they are. I knew that this property is what made neon signs light up the way they do but other than that fact and the inclusion of a small amount of mercury in the process I knew very little about the neon sign making process. I am curious how exactly the inventor of neon signs came up with the idea and how these signs found there way into American culture as they originated from France. I hope neon signs eventually make a comeback as I find them superior the the LED billboards that seem to have taken their place.
Neon lights are very interesting and this article just starts to scratch the surface. One of the most interesting things to me about neon lights is the glasswork involved, and that can start you down a whole separate rabbit hole of information you never needed to know. Because the glass tubes are filled with gas and there's only one inlet, a signmaker has to be very careful in choosing how they route the tubing and uses some tricks like painting portions black to hide anywhere they needed to go around another section of tube. The neon itself is very cool, and it always makes me think back to high school science class where we did experiments of making different colored light by filling tubes with different types of gas or using tinted glass. I remember David saying that people who work with neon signs can be hard to talk to on the phone, just because they are so interested in what they do and they will gladly tell you everything about it. The new LED alternatives look good too, but there's something special about real neon signs.
6 comments:
I didn’t know that neon glows red but can be different colors depending on the shape and tint of the glass - that’s super interesting! I knew vaguely how neon lights work but I didn’t know how the different colors worked. My main impression is that neon lights are expensive; I was working on a play once (Marie Antoinette but like a funky version with some funky creative unusual design) were the director wanted a LET THEM EAT CAKE neon sign built into a gray brick wall, and we definitely were not about to buy a custom neon sign since this was at my very small high school, so what we ended up doing was routing the letters into a piece of wood that became the “lid” to a light box with LEDs in it, and then getting a heat gun and those super chunky glue sticks and we melted the glue sticks enough to be sticky ish and lay them in the holes cut in the ply. When the LEDs inside the box were turned on, the gluesticks glowed and it actually looked pretty much like a neon sign more or less. The sign then went on to hang in the AP US History classroom for many years after and I think it is still there :)
Before reading this article, I never thought much about neon lights and the fact that it uses neon (crazy I know). I found this article to be very informative and super interesting to read. I think it’s crazy that they can last up to 40 years. I never knew that the default color of neon lights is red. That does make sense to me, especially when I picture a neon light, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the shape and tint of the glass is what changes the color. I wonder, when they talk about the shape of the glass, does the diameter of the tube change the color?
This is super cool, I had no idea how neon lights work. I find this super interesting because I think the science behind lighting is super cool and fun. They are a lot more complex than I thought, and can last a really, really long time. 30 to 40 years is an insane amount of time for a neon light to last. I also found it so interesting that the shape of the glass that the photons flow through helps determine the color of light that is seen. I do not own any neon lights, but I do own led lights, projector lights, and fairy lights and they make a super cool addition to my room, so I think I should add neon lights to the mix. These lights are also super old, they were created over 100 years ago which is so crazy and so cool. This was very interesting to learn about.
This was a pretty interesting informational article about the inner workings of neon lights. Georges Claude, a French engineer, incorporated neon gas into a sign in 1912, making it the first neon sign. With electricity flowing through a glass tube, electrons speed up and break their orbit. This causes positively charged ions to bounce around in the tube. The excess energy caused by this phenomenon is carried away by photons that cause the red glow - though the light can appear differently depending on the glass used. This also isn’t limited to neon. It can occur with argon, helium, and xenon, too. I didn’t know that neon lights could last for up to 40 years (though that isn’t very common). I love seeing neon lights in theatrical productions, too - it really strengthens the setting from a visual standpoint.
Going into this article I had some idea of how neon lights worked but it was interesting to continue to read about the history and science behind neon. I have fond memories of visiting the neon graveyard in Las Vegas and understand how important these lights are to the entertainment industry. We all know about the noble gasses and how remarkable stable they are. I knew that this property is what made neon signs light up the way they do but other than that fact and the inclusion of a small amount of mercury in the process I knew very little about the neon sign making process. I am curious how exactly the inventor of neon signs came up with the idea and how these signs found there way into American culture as they originated from France. I hope neon signs eventually make a comeback as I find them superior the the LED billboards that seem to have taken their place.
Neon lights are very interesting and this article just starts to scratch the surface. One of the most interesting things to me about neon lights is the glasswork involved, and that can start you down a whole separate rabbit hole of information you never needed to know. Because the glass tubes are filled with gas and there's only one inlet, a signmaker has to be very careful in choosing how they route the tubing and uses some tricks like painting portions black to hide anywhere they needed to go around another section of tube. The neon itself is very cool, and it always makes me think back to high school science class where we did experiments of making different colored light by filling tubes with different types of gas or using tinted glass. I remember David saying that people who work with neon signs can be hard to talk to on the phone, just because they are so interested in what they do and they will gladly tell you everything about it. The new LED alternatives look good too, but there's something special about real neon signs.
Post a Comment