French inventor Georges Claude displayed a new kind of lamp at the 1910 Paris Motor Show. When Claude connected two, 12-meter-long glass tubes filled with colorless neon gas to electricity, they glowed with a reddish-orange color. Onlookers praised Claude's invention, but they weren't excited about lighting their homes with his fiery light.
Claude's breakthrough came after he bent his tubes into the shapes of letters and learned how to produce other colors. In 1912, the world's first neon sign was displayed outside a Paris barbershop, and neon's role in advertising was born.
Americans first encountered neon in 1923 when the Packard Moter Car Company in Los Angeles displayed two of Claude's signs. Drivers stopped to gaze at the signs lit by "liquid fire." By the 1930s, American companies were producing their own signs and pushing the limits of neon. In 1936, for example, the Wrigley Company erected a huge aquaium scene in Times Square that featured animated, bubble-blowing fish and used over 1,000 feet of neon tubes.
Neon's golden age, however, didn't arrive until the 1950s when businesses from restaurants to movie theaters were all using neon signs to lure customers. Although neon's use has dipped since that golden age, neon districts like Las Vegas and Osaka continue to draw big crowds to this day.
More Information:
Two of the more famous Neon Districts around the world include:
Las Vegas: One neon "hot spot" features several restored neon signs from the golden years of Vegas - including Vegas Vic, 1 16-meter-tall neon cowboy created for the Pioneer casino.
Hong Kong: Every night the city puts on its "Symphony of Lights" show, a spectacle of light and sound dubbed the "World's Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show" by the Guinness World Record.
Grammar on the go:
By the 1930s, American companies were producing their own signs and pushing the limits of neon.
"pushing the limits of neon"-go beyond the limits
the limits of a city
"to push the limits"-
Cancer research continues to push the limits of microbiology.
The invention of cell phones pushed the limits of wireless communication.
"to push the limits"-
The training program was designed to push the limits of the athlete's physical endurance.
The baby's nonstop crying pushed the limits of the babysitter's patience.
Vocabulary Tips:
neon lights-霓虹燈
*The owner of the store used neon lights to light up the windows.
*One of the hotel sign's neon letters is burned out.
erected-建立,豎立,竪起來.
*A monument was erected to memorize what the brave warriors did for their country.
* The Empire State Building in New York City was erected in 1931.
*My father and I spent 2 hours erecting the tent.
golden age-黃金年代,全盛時期.
*The golden age of typewriters ended when the word processor was invented.
*The actor looked back on his forties and fifties as his golden age in the industry.
gaze- take time to look at something.注視
Chat Room
fiery-與"火"有関的.
fire, fiery, fir -all for "fiery",19 世紀,有不同拼音,直到新聞印刷出現,才統一用"fiery"
fiery (adj)- 也用來形容"人火爆的脾氣,個性上的衝動"
No comments:
Post a Comment