This Page is dedicated to the History of this incredibly important style of glass art, which would not be possible without these discoveries!

Scientific History of Neon:
1643- Evangelista Torricelli- Italy- partially filled a glass tube with mercury and attempted to turn it over into a plate already full of mercury. As it happened almost all of the mercury fell on the floor. Some of the mercury stayed suspended in the tube, creating the first artificial vacuum.



1645- Otto Von Guericke- Germany- invented a muscle powered vacuum pump.
1673- George Ravencroft- England- was commissioned and created lead glass that was stronger light refraction with the same clarity as soda glass.
1709- Francis Hawkesbee- - Produces some light by passing electricity through a glass cylander that has rarified gas.

1747- Ben Franklin- USA- Discovered the concept of positive and negative electricity.
1831- Michael Farady- England- discovered the electrical transformer, electrical generator and electrical motor. The electric motor helped to increase efficiency of Vacuum Pumps.
1852- Michael Faraday- England- discovered that when electricity flowed through a vacuum it created a greenish glow. He called it “fluorescence.”

1853- Sir George Stokes- England- Discovers first UV-excited phosphers.
1855- Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Geissler- Germany- discovered that if he used a vacuum pump in combination with Torricelli’s mercury tube, then he could evacuate all the air from the vacuum more efficiently. Experimented with complex physical and chemical glass chapes.

1859- A.E. Becauerel- - Put first phosphers into a vacuum discharge tube.
1870- Sprengil- - Invented High vacuum pump.
1879- Thomas Edison- USA- Discovers his first incandescent light bulb. Others at the time were also making the incandescent bulb, some before Edison.
1883- Nikola Tesla- Croatia- patented his motor the utilized alternating current.
1893- Nikola Tesla- Croatia- Hand bent glass tubing and illuminated them to say “Hello Electricians.” In the Chicago Colombian Exposition.

1893- D. Mcfarland Moore- USA- experimenting with using common gasses(Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen in illuminated tubes. Some of his work also was on display at the Chicago Colombian Exposition. He also invented a system of valves to keep the tubes fully pressured. He used a tube 2” in diameter, a large carbon cylinders and a tube
1000 feet long. The Carbon Dioxide glowed with a “daylight” glow and the Nitrogen glowed a golden yellow.
1894- John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh and William Ramsey- England- discovered Argon Gas.
1898- William Ramsey and Morris Travers- England- Discovered Neon, Krypton and Xenon.
1901- Peter Cooper Hewitt- - First commercial tubular mercury lamp.
1909- First Successful neon sign built in Newark, New Jersey.
1910- Georges Claude- French- was trying to isolate liquid oxygen from the air when he discovered that he was able to inexpensively isolate Argon and Neon gases.

1911-George Claude- USA- Files for patent, “Vacuum Discharge- Tube for Lighting Purposes.”
1910- first public display of a neon sign was of two 38-foot long tubes in at the Paris Expo.
1912- The first commercial sign was sold by Jaques Fonseque, Claude’s associate, to a Paris barber.
1921- Packard Motors Sign in San Francisco, argued to be the first neon advertising sign.