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Neon is a nobel gas and a pop art icon.
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Broadcast History
Distributed as podcast 3/08.
Transcript
Neon was first identified at the end of the 19th century along with two other noble gases, argon and krypton. Under normal conditions, neon is an inert, colorless gas, but soon after its discovery, the French inventor Georges Claude noticed that it had a curious property. He found that applying an electrical charge to a sealed glass tube of neon produced a distinctive reddish-orange glow. In 1923 Claude introduced Americans to the idea of neon advertising with two signs reading ?Packard? for a Los Angeles car dealership. Neon signs soon became a distinctive part of the American landscape, glowing in shop windows and lining highways across the country. Although true ?neon? lighting comes in one color only?reddish-orange ? manufacturers have developed a rainbow of colors using the other noble gases, mercury, and phosphor coatings.
More recently, a new generation of artists is experime...
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