Who developed neon lighting?
first NEON LIGHTING
The first NEON LIGHTING was developed by the French physicist. Georges Claude-, and displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show on 3 December 1910. Two 45 mm diameter neon tubes, each 35 m long, were used to illuminate the peristyle of the Grand Palais where it was held. The main drawback of neon lighting at this stage of its development was its colour—red—and although Claude had originally intended it for ordinary lighting purposes, he was presuaded by an advertising man, Jacques Fonseque, that it could be better utilized for illuminated signs. The rights were acquired by the agency Paz et Silva. for whom Fonseque worked, and in 1912 the first neon sign was erected over a barber-shop at 14 Boulevard Montmartre. The sign announced LE PALACE COIFFE UR in large red letters. In the same year the first neon advertising sign, consisting of the single word CINZANO, was displayed on the front of 72 boulevard Haussman. Claude himself joined the firm of Paz et Silva to continue developments, and soon produced a tube giving a blue light. Other colours were added to the range by introducing powders of the appropriate hue into the glass tube. By 1914 some 150 neon signs had been installed on buildings in Paris.
The West End Cinema in Coventry Street, London became the first public building in Britain to have its name emblazoned in neon in 1913. No other installations are known before 1923, when neon tubes were used to illuminate the tower of the Coliseum Theatre. The first neon advertising sign, erected on a 35 x 20 ft display site in Piccadilly Circus in 1924, announced that ANY TIME IS ARMY CLUB TIME. Army Club was a popular brand of cigarettes.
