INTERESTING FACTS:

• The first public display of a Neon Sign (not just a simple tube) was in December 1910 at the Paris Expo. The first commercial sign was sold in 1912 to a Paris Barber.

• The famous six story Coca Cola bottle in Times Square is nestled in more than a mile of neon tubing and empties & refills itself 1000 times a day!

• Once the most famous advertisement in the world, the neon Camel Cigarette Sign found in Times Square puffed real smoke rings every four seconds for 25 years.

• A neon sign museum called the Boneyard is found in Las Vegas and is dedicated to preserving the city's history and culture through nearly 70 years of neon signage.

• Neon comes from air. Did you know it takes 88,000 lbs of liquefied air to get just 1 lb of Neon?

• A neon tube is considered a gas discharge tube. Light is given off when electricity is discharged through the low pressure (a vacuum) pure gas contained within the glass tube

• The only material ever found to be able to contain the gas in a pure form, and let light escape is glass. Plastics and other materials have been tried but have never worked.

• As long ago as 1709, it was known that you could get a glow by discharging static electricity within a sealed glass vessel. Was this the first gas discharge tube?

• Neon Gas was first discovered in 1898 by two British scientists, Sir William Ramsey and Morris Travers.

• The first luminous discharge tubes were invented by the German glassblower Heinrich Geissler. To this day many gas discharge tubes are referred to as "Geissler Tubes" in the neon and light bulb industries.

• The French Engineer Georges Claude is considered the inventor of the modern day Neon Sign.

• You would think that the Neon Sign is an American Icon, however, neon is also very popular in many Eastern countries including Hong Kong and China. Neon displays in these countries rival anything we have in Las Vegas or Times Square!