neon lamp

Mercury vapour in a neon lamp gives a bluish light; mercury is used also in fluorescent lamps and some ultraviolet lamps. Helium in amber glass glows gold; blue light in yellow glass shows green; combinations of gases give white light.

…the light given off by neon tubes and such other light sources as fluorescent lamps, which operate by virtue of the plasmas they produce in electric discharge. The degree of ionization in such plasmas is usually low, but electron densities of 10¹⁶ to 10¹⁸ electrons per cubic metre can be…

… developed such a tube with neon gas as the filling; when a high voltage was applied to the two electrodes at either end of the tube, it emitted a deep red light. Neon signs soon decorated the exteriors of commercial buildings in the world’s cities, and experiments with other vapour…

…Claude was experimenting with the neon tube and other gas-filled illuminating devices. In less than a decade, signs were being fashioned of glass tubes bent to form words and designs that glowed red or green or blue when the gases inside them were subjected to an electric current.

…discharge tube, such as the neon lamp commonly used in advertising signs, is an example of such a source. Other examples are hollow cathode lamps and electrodeless lamps driven by microwave radiation. If specific atomic lines are desired, a small amount of the desired element is introduced in the discharge.

…chemist, and inventor of the neon light, which found widespread use in signs and was the forerunner of the fluorescent light.