+
+ + + +
+ + +
+ +
+
+
+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ The Moulin Rouge cabaret in + Paris Benoit + Tessier/Reuters +
+
+ +

+ The once-ubiquitous form of lighting was novel when it first emerged in the early 1900s, + though it has since come to represent decline. +

+
+ +
+
+

+ In the summer of 1898, the Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay made a discovery that + would eventually give the Moulin Rouge in Paris, the Las Vegas Strip, and New York’s + Times Square their perpetual nighttime glow. Using the boiling point of argon as a + reference point, Ramsay and his colleague Morris W. Travers isolated three more noble + gases and gave them evocative Greek names: neon, krypton, and xenon. In so doing, the + scientists bestowed a label of permanent novelty on the most famous of the trio—neon, + which translates as “new.” This discovery was the foundation on which the French + engineer Georges Claude crafted a new form of illumination over the next decade. He + designed glass tubes in which neon gas could be trapped, then electrified, to create a + light that glowed reliably for more than 1,000 hours. +

+

+ In the 2012 book L’être et le Néon, which + has been newly translated into English by Michael Wells, the philosopher Luis de + Miranda weaves a history of neon lighting as both artifact and metaphor. Being and + Neonness, as the book is called in its English edition, isn’t a typical + material history. There are no photographs. Even de Miranda’s own example of a neon deli + sign spotted in Paris is re-created typographically, with text in all caps and dashes + forming the border of the sign, as one might attempt on Twitter. Fans of Miami Beach’s + restored Art Deco hotels and California’s bowling alleys might be disappointed by the + lack of glossy historical images. Nonetheless, de Miranda makes a convincing case for + neon as a symbol of the grand modern ambitions of the 20th century. +

+ +

+ De Miranda beautifully evokes the notion of neon lighting as an icon of the 1900s in his + introduction: “When we hear the word neon, an image pops into our heads: a + combination of light, colors, symbols, and glass. This image is itself a mood. It + carries an atmosphere. It speaks … of the essence of cities, of the poetry of nights, of + the 20th century.” When neon lights debuted in Europe, they seemed dazzlingly + futuristic. But their husky physicality started becoming obsolete by the 1960s, thanks + in part to the widespread use of plastic for fluorescent signs. Neon signs exist today, + though they’ve been eclipsed by newer technologies such as digital billboards, and they + remain charmingly analog: Signs must be made by hand because there’s no cost-effective + way to mass-produce them. +

+

+ In the 1910s, neon started being used for cosmopolitan flash in Paris at precisely the + time and place where the first great modernist works were being created. De Miranda’s + recounting of the ingenuity emerging from the French capital a century ago is thrilling + to contemplate: the cubist art of Pablo Picasso, the radically deconstructed fashions of + Coco Chanel, the stream-of-consciousness poetry of Gertrude Stein, and the genre-defying + music of Claude Debussy—all of which heralded a new age of culture for Europe and for + the world. +

+
+ +
+

+ Amid this artistic groundswell, Georges Claude premiered his neon lights at the Paris Motor Show in + December 1910, captivating visitors with 40-foot-tall tubes affixed to the building’s + exterior. The lights shone orange-red because neon, by itself, produces that color. + Neon lighting is a catchall term that describes the technology of glass tubing + that contains gas or chemicals that glow when electrified. For example, neon fabricators + use carbon dioxide to make white, and mercury to make blue. Claude acknowledged at the + time that neon didn’t produce the ideal color for a standard light bulb and insisted + that it posed no commercial threat to incandescent bulbs. +

+

+ Of course, the very quality that made neon fixtures a poor choice for interior lighting + made them perfect for signs, de Miranda notes. The first of the neon signs was switched + on in 1912, advertising a barbershop on Paris’s Boulevard Montmartre, and eventually + they were adopted by cinemas and nightclubs. While Claude had a monopoly on neon + lighting throughout the 1920s, the leaking of trade secrets and the expiration of a + series of patents broke his hold on the rapidly expanding technology. +

+
+
+
+

+ In the following decades, neon’s nonstop glow and vibrant colors turned ordinary + buildings and surfaces into 24/7 billboards for businesses, large and small, that wanted + to convey a sense of always being open. The first examples of neon in the United States + debuted in Los Angeles, where the Packard Motor Car Company commissioned two large + blue-and-orange Packard signs that literally stopped + traffic because they distracted motorists. The lighting also featured heavily at the + Chicago Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 and at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. + At the latter event, a massive neon sign reading Futurama + lit the way to a General Motors exhibition that heralded “The World of Tomorrow.” +

+
+ + + +
+ Workers remove a hammer and sickle from a neon sign that reads “Glory to Communism,” + visible on the roof of the Communist-run electricity-board headquarters in + Czechoslovakia in 1989. (AP) +
+
+

+ De Miranda points out that businesses weren’t alone in embracing neon’s ability to + spread messages effectively. By the middle of the century, the lighting was being + adopted for more political purposes. “In the 1960s, the Soviets deployed a vast + ‘neonization’ of the Eastern bloc capitals to emulate capitalist metropolises,” de + Miranda writes. “Because consumer shops were rare in the Polish capital [of Warsaw], + they did not hesitate to illuminate the façades of public buildings.” In other words, as + opposed to the sole use of the more obvious forms of propaganda via posters or slogans, + the mass introduction of neon lighting was a way of getting citizens of Communist cities + to see their surroundings with the pizzazz and nighttime glamour of major Western + capitals. +

+
+
+
+

+ Neon, around this time, began to be phased out, thanks to cheaper and less + labor-intensive alternatives. In addition, the global economic downturn of the 1970s + yielded a landscape in which older, flickering neon signs, which perhaps their owners + couldn’t afford to fix or replace, came to look like symbols of decline. Where such + signs were once sophisticated and novel, they now seemed dated and even seedy. +

+ +

+ De Miranda understands this evolution by zooming out and looking at the 1900s as the + “neon century.” The author draws a parallel between the physical form of neon lights, + which again are essentially containers for electrified gases, and that of a glass + capsule—suggesting they are a kind of message in a bottle from a time before the First + World War. “Since then, [neon lights] have witnessed all the transformations that have + created the world we live in,” de Miranda writes. “Today, they sometimes seem to + maintain a hybrid status, somewhere between junkyards and museums, not unlike European + capitals themselves.” +

+
+ + + +
+ Martin Wartman, a student at Northern Kentucky University, works on a neon sign at + the Neonworks of Cincinnati workshop connected to the American Sign Museum, in 2016. + (John Minchillo / AP) +
+
+

+ Another mark of neon’s hybridity: Its obsolescence started just as some contemporary + artists began using the lights in their sculptures. Bruce Nauman’s 1968 work My + Name as Though It Were Written on the Surface of the Moon poked fun at + the space race—another symbol of 20th-century technological innovation whose moment has + passed. The piece uses blue “neon” letters (mercury, actually) to spell out the name + “bruce” in lowercase cursive, with each character repeated several times as if to convey + a person speaking slowly in outer space. The British artist Tracey Emin has made sculptures + that resemble neon Valentine’s Day candies: They read as garish and sentimental + confections with pink, heart-shaped frames that surround blue text fragments. Drawing on + the nostalgia-inducing quality of neon, the sculptures’ messages are redolent of + old-fashioned movie dialogue, with titles such as “You Loved Me Like a Distant Star” and + “The Kiss Was Beautiful.” +

+

+ Seeing neon lighting tamed in the context of a gallery display fits comfortably with de + Miranda’s notion that neon technology is like a time capsule from another age. In + museums, works of neon art and design coexist with objects that were ahead of their own + time in years past—a poignant fate for a technology that made its name advertising “The + World of Tomorrow.” Yet today neon is also experiencing a kind of craft revival. The + fact that it can’t be mass-produced has made its fabrication something akin to a + cherished artisanal technique. Bars and restaurants hire firms such as Let There Be Neon + in Manhattan, or the L.A.-based master + neon artist Lisa Schulte, to create custom signs and works of art. Neon’s story + even continues to glow from inside museums such as California’s Museum of Neon Art and the Neon Museum in Las + Vegas. If it can still be a vital medium for artists and designers working today, + “neonness” need not only be trapped in the past. It might also capture the mysterious + glow of the near future—just as it did a century ago. +

+

+ This article originally appeared on The + Atlantic. +

+
+
+

+ About the Author +

+ +
+
+
+ +
+
+ +
+

+ Most Popular +

+
+
    +
  1. + + + + A photo of an Uber Bus in Cairo, the company's new microtransit program. + + +
    + Transportation +

    + ‘Uber + Was Supposed To Be Our Public Transit’ +

    +

    + Innisfil, Ontario, decided to partially subsidize ride-hailing trips rather + than pay for a public bus system. It worked so well that now they have to + raise fares and cap rides. +

    + +
    +
  2. +
  3. + + + + + + +
    + Environment +

    + A + 13,235-Mile Road Trip for 70-Degree Weather Every Day +

    +

    + This year-long journey across the U.S. keeps you at consistent high + temperatures. +

    + +
    +
  4. +
  5. + + + + The outside of a large apartment building, dotted with air conditioners. + + +
    + Environment +

    + What + If Air Conditioning Could Help Stop Climate Change Instead of Causing + It? +

    +

    + Using technology currently in development, AC units in skyscrapers and homes + could get turned into machines that pull carbon dioxide out of the + atmosphere. +

    + +
    +
  6. +
  7. + + + + A train traveling on an elevated platform. + + +
    + Transportation +

    + Texas + High Speed Rail Faces a New Threat: Semantics +

    +

    + A private company plans to break ground on a bullet train between Houston + and Dallas in 2019. But opponents of the project have a new argument. +

    + +
    +
  8. +
  9. + + + + + + +
    + Solutions +

    + In + Switzerland, Everyone’s an Urban Planner +

    +

    + To reimagine its largest public space, the Swiss city of Lausanne organized + a citywide consultation and workshop that asked: Just who is the public? +

    + +
    +
  10. +
+
+
+
+
+ +
+
+ Maps +
Click Here +
+
+
+ + +
+
+ + +
+
+
+ +
+