Many people know neon from the iconic signs that light up when you walk by them. They typically have that trademark reddish-orange color, but neon can actually glow in several other colors as well. Neon is a rare gas, and is used in many applications today including advertising signs, vacuum tubes (such as television and wave meter tubes), high voltage indicators, plasma tubes, and helium-neon lasers.
The chemical element neon is a noble gas, which means that it does not react with other substances in normal conditions. It is the second lightest noble gas and has an atomic number of 10. It was discovered by two British chemists in 1898, William Ramsay of Scotland and Morris Travers of England, who were searching for the gases that fit directly above argon and krypton on the Periodic Table. They froze an argon sample, evaporated it, and collected the initial gas that appeared. When they ran electricity through the initial sample, it glowed a bright red. Ramsay named the new element neon after the Greek word neos, meaning “new.”
Today, neon is most often produced by cryogenic fractional distillation of liquid air. One pound of neon gas requires processing 88,000 pounds of liquid air to produce. It is used in scientific research and manufacturing when an inert environment is needed to prevent other elements or compounds from reacting with the material being worked on. It is also used in the production of LED lights, where its color-rendering properties are very useful.
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