First introduced to the world at the Paris Motor Show in 1910, neon lights lit up countless streets and gave people a chance to rethink outdoor advertising.
For much of the 20th century, neon billboards illuminating large spaces ignited passions and beckoned purchases, enthralling and mesmerizing consumers.
At some point, these signs began to hint at unfulfilled desires and became associated with the dirty side of the city, such as dingy bars and sex shops. So what are the reasons for neon's appeal?
What has made signage such charming landmarks that constantly evoke fond memories of bygone eras? This article focuses on the fascinating history of neon, shedding light on its profound role in shaping the streetscapes and history of major cities around the world.
The first glow of neon has emerged from the labs
In the 1890s, the discovery of a scarce gas called neon sparked a fascination with brightly glowing light bulbs that lasted for the next century. When British chemist William Ramsay isolated neon in a glass tube and charged it with electricity, he saw, in his own words, the northern lights appear before his eyes.
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Mesmerized by this spectacular sight, Ramsay later described it as "a bright fiery light composed of many red, orange, and yellow lines". This view was supported by Morris Travers, with whom Ramsay discovered four noble gases - neon, argon, krypton, and xenon.
"The purple light coming out of the tube told its own story, and it was a sight to focus on and never forget," Travers says. "There was nothing in the world that gave the kind of glow we saw."
Scientific breakthrough and the beginning of commercial use
Despite Ramsay and Travers' stunning discovery, for the next decade the use of neon remained confined to laboratories. That all changed when French chemist and entrepreneur Georges Claude found a commercial application for neon. He invented the Claude tube, modified from an older Moore tube, which could produce a stable and long-lasting red light with an efficiency of 15 minutes per watt.
In 1910, the world saw neon in all its glory for the first time when Claude installed two larger-than-life-sized red neon signs at the Paris Motor Show. Claude went on to illuminate the Parisian nightscapes with his company, Air Liquide. The first commercial neon sign reading "Palais Coifer" is said to have been made for a barbershop on the Boulevard Montmartre in Paris.
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In the 1920s, neon made its first journey across the Atlantic to the United States. American entrepreneur Earl C. Anthony commissioned two neon signs for his Los Angeles salon that read "Packard," referring to the luxury automobile brand. It was reported that many people were so mesmerized by the electrifying signs that police had to be called in to regulate human and vehicular traffic.
Like their European counterparts, residents of the United States were shocked by the fashionable invention that marked the beginning of neon's invasion of American streets and psyche.
The pre-war heyday of neon signs
In 1924, Claude founded Claude Neon Light Inc. in New York City and lit up the night sky of the Big Apple. The success of his neon sign business brought new franchises across the country - in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit, and even in foreign cities like Casablanca and Shanghai.
By the mid-1930s, neon signs adorned the streets of almost every major city in the world, becoming a popular form of outdoor
advertising. Neon signs have become a permanent fixture, bringing shoppers to diners, gas stations, movie theaters, and even motels.
As war approached in the late 1930s, neon sign factories were closed, as were many other businesses. Countries such as China, the UK and Germany also imposed restrictions on lighting.
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Regardless of which side of the war was on, nighttime aerial bombardment was a reality that prevented the use of neon lighting. Both the Allies and the Axis countries (Germany, Italy, Japan) required their citizens to follow blackout rules, as the slightest source of light could endanger the country.
Overnight, neon centers such as Times Square and Piccadilly Circus were plunged into total darkness. It was not until April 1945, after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, that Big Ben was lit again, ending more than five years of blackout regimes. As people celebrated freedom and victory, the re-lighting of the lights in major cities marked the symbolic end of the dark days of war.
1950s: Hong Kong's neon era begins
The appeal of neon was not only noticeable in the western world. Across the Pacific Ocean, in Hong Kong, neon signs became the defining symbols of the city. Hong Kong's neon era began in the 1950s and flourished through the 1980s.
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On Nathan Road, a busy shopping district, there was once a huge National Panasonic (now known as Panasonic) sign that no Hong Konger can forget. It was an iconic era when advertisers used giant neon signs to build their brands, and some of the largest neon billboards in the world appeared on the streets of Hong Kong.
The dizzying images of a city constantly in motion and saturated with neon have since become synonymous with the image of Hong Kong.
Neon is shiny, shimmery..... and dirty
The dark side of neon emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, when it became increasingly associated with less respectable activities. From Times Square in New York to Soho in London, neon signs marked the entrances to the dubious clubs, bars and sex shops that filled the streets.
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Neon signs in kaleidoscopic colors illuminated back alleys and storefronts alike, a time when debauchery was rampant. The most carnal desires - fulfilled and unfulfilled - burned in the bright neon that became synonymous with the sordid underbelly of city life.
The lights went out: the gradual decline of neon
As neon became a symbol of messy living, it too began to face the threat of obsolescence for several reasons. From a cost perspective, it was expensive for business owners to replace or repair flickering and malfunctioning neon signs. This coincided with the advent of backlit fluorescent lightboxes as a more convenient and less costly alternative.
At the same time, the novelty and the notion that neon represented something futuristic was rapidly fading as the lighting became widespread. It was also at this time that concerns about skin exposure to the lead contained in neon tubes arose. Since the 1990s, the popularity of LED lamps (light-emitting diodes or light emitting diodes) has overshadowed neon.
LEDs were single point semiconductor light sources and were a cheaper and more environmentally friendly lighting option than neon.
LEDs also provided greater flexibility in shape, as opposed to the rigidity of curved neon tubes.
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Another reason for neon's decline was safety. In the mid-2000s, Hong Kong authorities received numerous reports of an increased risk of obsolescence of street signs, many of which were neon-lit, raising public safety concerns.
This led to more than 3,000 unauthorized signs being removed each year, and in 2009 alone, more than 5,000 signs disappeared from the streets. Four years later, the government adopted the Unauthorized Signage Inspection Scheme, and since then the disappearance of neon signs from the streets has accelerated.
Neon will never die: the impact on popular culture
Although today neon is mostly used in art installations and as decorative room lighting, its legacy cannot be muted. For many, this mysterious illumination evokes strong feelings of longing and nostalgia for a simpler and brighter past.
Despite its bygone functional use, neon plays an integral role in the creation of unique and dynamic pop culture works. For example, contemporary neon art became fashionable in the late 1990s and early 2000s thanks to famous artists such as Tracey Emin.
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The British artist is credited with popularizing neon as a form of text art. She collaborated with neon lamp manufacturers who created multicolored tubes that accurately replicated her handwritten notes. Emin's work, which is a beautiful combination of the written word and neon art, has been recognized for its poetry and personal expression.
In movies, tantalizing neon signs lead viewers into a realm where their desires are safely accepted and not judged. Director Wong Kar-Wai, an important figure in Asian cinema, has become famous for immortalizing Hong Kong's nightscapes.
Wong's mesmerizing world, saturated with neon lights, has become one of the most iconic and distinctive cinematic styles.
Legions of moviegoers and movie lovers associate themselves with his characters, who often experience loneliness and longing for love in a neon-soaked city that never sleeps. To this day, Wong's masterpiece Fallen Angels (1995), about the nocturnal adventures of a hitman, his agent and a silent criminal, remains a cult favorite.
The neon story is based on
human emotion. It can evoke the strongest feelings - desire, temptation and happiness. In the brightly lit streets flooded with neon lights, there is never a quiet night, this night is filled with fun, pleasure and even misbehavior.