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The Neon Timeline
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Francis
Hawksbee produced light by shaking a vacuum tube filled with mercury. |
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Johann
Heinrich Winkler used heat to bend a glass tube to form a word. |
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Heinrich Geissler experimented with a sealed low-pressure tube
producing light using a high voltage alternating current. Further
experiments by Geissler and Michael Faraday and William Crookes
in England showed that all gases and vapors are capable of carrying
a current and producing light. |
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Timothy Morris, Robert Weare and Herbert Monkton were granted
British patents for a process that used coloured light from Geissler
tubes filled with various gases for maritime signaling purposes. |
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Nikola Tesla demonstrates the effect of high voltage alternating
current on gases sealed in a glass tube that had been bent to
form the word "light". |
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Sir William Ramsay and his student Morris Travers develop a process
for the fractional distillation of liquid air which enables them
to extract rare gases such as neon, argon, krypton and zeon. These
new discoveries sealed in Geissler's tubes were to provide a colourful
display as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
The cost of isolating these gases prevents their wider use and
application to lighting. |
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D. McFarland Moore unveils the first commercial application of
this emerging technology. Using tubes almost 8 feet in length
and over 2 inches in diameter he produces a sign for a Newark,
New Jersey hardware store. Impurities present in the gases used
inside Moore's tubes set off chemical reactions that corrode the
electrodes causing the tubes to burn out rapidly. |
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French scientist Georges Claude working with liquid air and large-scale
fractional distillation and trying to produce large, cheap, quantities
of oxygen for French hospitals, ends up with, as a by-product,
quite a large amount of neon and argon. Aware of the earlier experiments,
he begins his own using some of Moore's tubes. |
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After much experimentation Claude develops his own tubes, much
smaller than Moore's, and, more importantly, the non-corrosive
electrode. He is awarded a French patent for his work and exhibits
the new light at the Grand Palais in Paris. He also applies for
an American patent. |
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1912
Claude's
new company sells its first neon sign to a Parisian barber shop. |
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A Cinzano neon sign is installed on the Champs-Elysees |
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Claude is granted United States patent No. 1,125,476 for "certain
new and useful improvements in systems of illuminating by luminescent
tubes". That same year he begins to sell licenses of his patent
around the world. |
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The entrance to the Paris Opera is lit with blue and red neon
tubes, these colours quickly become known as "opera colours".
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While on vacation Earle C. Anthony, a Packard automobile dealer
from Los Angeles, arranges to have two Packard neon signs produced
and shipped to the U.S. Once installed, the signs caused an immediate
sensation. One of these signs is still in place and working in
the mid-1970s. |
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The first neon sign in Vancouver has its neon tubes made by a
company in Seattle. |
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Vancouver entrepreneur George Sweeny, puts together a group of
investors and forms Neon Products Ltd. in the basement of the
Marmon Automobile Company on Granville Street. Newspaper advertisements
published that same year herald the 74 "progressive firms" that
have used the "attractive reds, blues and greens of NEON LIGHT".
The same advertisement warns against illegitimate manufacturers
infringing on the Claude patents. |
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There are now 11 companies listed in the Vancouver directories
producing neon signs. |
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It's lights out for neon. Blackouts as a result of the war require
signs to be turned off. Sign company crews are authorized to smash
any signs that are not turned off by their owners. The sheet metal
used in making signs is needed for the war effort. Local sign
companies redirect their energies to supplying needed war materials. |
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Old signs are kept by the sign companies and are repainted and
re-tubed for new customers due to the continued shortage of materials. |
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After negotiations with the War Department the sheet steel shortage
is resolved. |
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Vancouver Sun publishes the article "Neon Hits You in Eye" which
estimates that Vancouver has more neon signs per capita than any
other city on the continent. |
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The peak of popularity for neon in Vancouver. |
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The City of Vancouver drafts a bylaw to restrict signs in the
downtown core. |
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Neon Products president says that he doesn't think the signs on
Granville Street will ever be abolished. The Community Arts Council's
sign and street furniture committee advocates the strict control
of neon signs in the city. |
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A Province newspaper editorial decries the "hideous spectacle
of sleazy signs" |
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The City of Vancouver places more restrictions on large signs
on Vancouver streets. |
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The City of Vancouver publishes, in conjunction with the major
sign companies, Signs in Vancouver, a guide to the new sign bylaw.
"Good taste" rules the day. Vancouver's flirtation with the neon
sign is over. Maybe. |
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