Neon light was demonstrated in 1910 by Georges Claude in Paris, reached American storefronts in the 1920s, dominated the mid century city, and was largely displaced by cheaper technologies from the 1960s onward.
What survived is the craft. Bending glass over a flame to a drawn pattern is done today essentially as it was a century ago.
How it started
Neon is one of the noble gases, isolated in 1898. Passing an electric current through it in a sealed tube makes it glow a distinctive orange red, and by 1910 Georges Claude had demonstrated this publicly in Paris as a practical light source.
It turned out to be a poor general illuminant and an extraordinary sign material. Within a few years the first commercial neon signs appeared in France, and by the early 1920s they had reached the United States.
The mid century
From the 1930s to the 1950s neon defined how a city looked after dark. Every high street had it. The great commercial districts, Times Square, the Las Vegas Strip, Piccadilly Circus, Ginza, were built out of bent glass, and a generation of sign shops trained benders in numbers that have never been matched since.
| Period | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1910 | Claude demonstrates neon light in Paris |
| 1920s | Commercial neon reaches the United States |
| 1930s to 1950s | The peak. Neon defines the night time city |
| 1960s onward | Plastic light boxes and fluorescent displace it on cost |
| 1980s to 1990s | Revival as art rather than as signage |
| 2010s onward | LED neon arrives. Glass becomes a deliberate choice |
Why it declined
Not because it stopped working. Internally lit plastic light boxes were cheaper to make, cheaper to install and needed no skilled bender, and by the 1970s most chains had standardized on them. Neon became expensive, then old fashioned, then in many places a thing councils actively discouraged.
The craft nearly went with it. Bending is learned by hand over years, and when the work dried up the apprenticeships did too.
Where it stands now
Two things carry the name today. Real glass neon, made exactly as it always was, chosen for its depth of color and the fact that a person bent it. And LED neon, a silicone tube of LEDs that imitates the look at lower cost, lower voltage and far lower fragility.
They are different products rather than better and worse versions of one, and we make both. If you are weighing them up, the comparison is here, and how glass is bent by hand is here.
The interesting part of this history is not the technology, which was settled by 1915. It is that a craft learned entirely by hand survived sixty years of being commercially obsolete, and is now chosen deliberately rather than by default. That is a rarer thing than the glow.
Frequently asked questions
When was the neon sign invented?
Georges Claude demonstrated neon light publicly in Paris in 1910, and the first commercial neon signs followed within a few years. They reached the United States in the early 1920s and defined how cities looked after dark from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Is there actually neon gas in a neon sign?
Only in the orange red ones. Pure neon glows orange red and nothing else. The blues, greens and whites come from argon, usually with a trace of mercury, in tubes coated inside with phosphor. The name came to cover the whole family.
Why did neon signs decline?
Cost, not performance. Internally lit plastic light boxes were cheaper to make and install and needed no skilled bender, so from the 1960s onward most businesses switched. The craft nearly disappeared with the work, since bending is learned by hand over years.
Is real glass neon still made today?
Yes, essentially as it always was: glass tube heated over a flame and bent by hand to a full size drawn pattern, then filled with gas and sealed. It survived as an art medium through the decades when almost nobody wanted it as signage.
What is the difference between vintage neon and LED neon?
Real glass neon is bent glass filled with gas and driven at high voltage. LED neon is a flexible silicone tube containing LEDs running on 12V. Glass has more depth of color and the irregularity of a hand made object; LED is cheaper, safer, cooler and far easier to ship.
We have made neon since 1998, and we still make it ourselves. If something here does not answer your question, ask us.
