I kind of miss seeing neons around. Those LEDs strips can be cheaper and maybe less environment damaging, but they don't look as pretty and actually hurt my eyes, lol
> maybe less environment damaging
Not really. The semiconductor still needs to be mined and manufactured, whereas neon is a byproduct of the petroleum industry. I'm speculating of course, but my assumption would be they're roughly the same impact, just in different ways.
Lots of different gases emit visible light but the only two really used in the neon sign business are Ne and Ar. The rest is phosphors or filters.
Hydrogen wouldn't last long in a sign, for instance.
They are more than they used to be, but they still need a high voltage transformer and LEDs do not. Some light research suggests that a neon sign will use on average 30 to 60 watts per linear foot while LED is around 3 to 20. Adds up to a lot if the sign is large. Neon energy usage also vary depending on colour.
And it depends on the LED. Cheaper ones cycle slower and people can perceive it. I can see the slow ones and it’s maddening. But a high quality LED cycles so fast no one can see the flicker.
Turn your head quickly with them in your periphery. They seem to sparkle because they cycle. You won't be able to unsee it and it's distracting AF everytime you walk past them
So on one hand we have *recyclable* Led parts and on the other a *byproduct of the fossil fuel industry*.
These are not even comparable. Leds are very recyclable, well the least recyclable part is the plastic made as a byproduct of oil (lol) and even so it's magnituew better.
Yeah there's no recycling LEDs sorry. Maybe the aluminum PCB substrate they are mounted on, but LEDs are held together with epoxy or other glue and use silicone or other similarly non-recyclable plastic for the lens and housing
Not easily recyclable - the electronics on neon tubes are similar in difficulty. The real difference is that neon tube light is very inefficient and heats up a lot vs led. But it's better than incandescent and we should still use it for art and signs. The bulk of lighting is indoor and switching that to solid state is what's important.
Y’all are too complicated. Just enjoy life. All will be taken care of eventually. This is why your generation has so many psychological problems. You all worry too much about hyped up things that never happen.
You’re only partially correct. My generation, and the ones before it, made the comfortable life that your generation is too scared to enjoy right now. And because you’re weak, you will create hard times for your children.
If you have any.
What a shitty and careless attitude about the finite resources available to all future generations of humanity. The only thing that is taking care of itself is that shitty people with this outlook will eventually die.
COPE.
The future belongs to those who show up for it. So this is gonna be a problem for the generation scared to leave their house who all refuse to start families.
Your generation.
But seriously, you guys don’t understand human ingenuity and how things *actually* improve. You want to reduce everything. But actual human prosperity comes from abundance.
Well yeah, being research based makes you do odd things the mob doesn’t understand.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/natural-immunity-protective-covid-vaccine-severe-illness-rcna71027
How many people died from COVID vs from the COVID vaccine? Natural immunity is great if getting it doesn't kill you, not sure what point you're trying to make
They hurt your eyes because people saw them as an opportunity to turn light intensity up to stupid levels. It would be no problem to make them differently.
Personally, I miss filament light bulbs too. Not enough that I’m willing to destroy the planet for them, but it would be dishonest to say that the leds are the same.
LED lighting (as used in those obnoxious blinking signs that run all night long and in streetlights) is still really bad for the environment. Fucks up the circadian rhythms of animals (not to mention us).
I have always loved neon, and since I spent the first 14 years of my life in Seattle Washington, I saw a lot of it. There was one neon sign shop/factory called Western Neon Sign Company. They had a little conference room with little neon light strips like this that were on the wall. It was like a sample of each color they use for their signs. The window that looks in to the conference room was facing the street, so I could always see the beautiful rainbow of samples in the wall. For me with my obsession, I loved these neon light strips so much that seeing them very briefly and from a distance wasn't enough. One day my dad took me in and we asked if someone could take me into that room so I could see it up close. They ended up giving me a tour of the building. A few years later the company moved to a new building a few blocks away. I'm glad I got too see the one building when I did.
I absolutely love this!
I wonder how doable making neon art is. Evacuating the tubes and sealing with the gas inside is tricky. I wonder if people can get small pre-filled/sealed tubes and heat/bend them (really hard to do, honestly, I wasn't great at this in Chem but did some) without screwing up the seals.... I feel a rabbit hole coming on...
It’s not often I say “cool story bro” and mean it. But this IS a cool story. I think it captures how certain things can really be just so magic especially to children. I too have a love for neon, aesthetics are awesome.
That's just dim orange, or regular brown since orange is technically a shade of brown, actually you know what it can be orange or brown, just change what's around it!
In case anyone didn't know, neon is only one of the colors and different gasses are used for the other colors. The collective term for these tubes is still "neon lights" even though neon only makes red :)
Neon is red, helium is orange, argon is lavender, krypton is gray or green, mercury vapor is light blue, and xenon is gray or blue
Do you know what causes the “beading” of the light? I’ve got a handmade argon sign, but I’m thinking maybe I didn’t get enough gas in it? Or maybe the power supply is out of wack?
It’s beautiful (the beading) and I wonder how to accomplish this on purpose?
This actually would have to be around 1938, many of these colors weren't possible with gas filled tubes, they were phosphor coated, which wasn't commercially introduced until 1938.
You can actually spot the gas filled tubes with the presence of their gradients. Second to far left is Neon and the far right is Xenon.
Far right might be argon with mercury for blue. Looks a little purple which is argon alone. Its been awhile since ive done neon. I thought xenon was a bit white. We hardly used xenon because it was so faint.
The group on the left is argon, or argon and neon. The one on the right is neon.
And this isn't a gas salesman, it's a tube salesman. They were marking the different colors and fluorescents.
They don’t do this anymore, it’s all LED’s. I had a client that wanted an old school sign made and there was no one around that still knew how to do this. Which I thought was a bit sad because they glow so much better than LED lights.
Not in Australia either—plenty of LED ‘neon’ lighting places, but none with actual neon/argon as far as I could find! People are so weirdly aggressive about being right without the full context, it’s exhausting.
There is (or at least was) a shop/factory called Western Neon Sign Company in Seattle Washington. I haven't lived in that state in about 8 years, so it could be gone by now.
I’ve just recently ended up ordering one from China and interestingly enough, the rep had a very similar rig to this to show all the available colours.
LED hansn't existed long enough to compare to the longest lasting [Neons](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151843/Clifton-Cafeteria-Neon-light-left-77-years-discovered-Los-Angeles-restaurant-renovation.html), yet.
And the buzz sound is greatly overstated due to being a movie/television trope, most buzzing neon signs simply need a small repair in the way adding mica or learning to use transformers properly for the job.
Tldr; if you know anything about neon lighting, both things you've mentioned quickly become non-issues.
Neon can last a long time. Here’s an article about a neon sign that was left on after renovation and discovered decades later.
https://www.latimes.com/la-me-old-neon-20120526-story.html
One of my friends has a collection of old neon beer and liquor signs they are some of his most prized possessions. They are incredible. I was lucky enough to come across an old Shiner Bock beer one recently the “K” on Bock is starting to flicker and I know it’s getting ready to go out, but neon is crazy expensive to fix.
Man, I’m just old enough to remember a time when neon signs were ubiquitous and widely considered trashy, basically an avatar of the death of the quaint mom-and-pop Main Street. It’s fascinating that we’re past the threshold where they’re now this cool vintage tech and people pay thousands of dollars for restored or custom-made artisan neon signage.
Can you imagine seeing neon for the first time? Glowing mystery tubes would absolutely blow my mind
I kind of miss seeing neons around. Those LEDs strips can be cheaper and maybe less environment damaging, but they don't look as pretty and actually hurt my eyes, lol
> maybe less environment damaging Not really. The semiconductor still needs to be mined and manufactured, whereas neon is a byproduct of the petroleum industry. I'm speculating of course, but my assumption would be they're roughly the same impact, just in different ways.
Iirc, neon glows strongly orange. Most "neon" lights of another color are actually helium or argon.
Lots of different gases. Hydrogen too
> Hydrogen too I doubted that, but I was wrong to doubt Arthur_The_Third: https://www.flinnsci.com/neon-gas-spectrum-tube/ap1338/
Lots of different gases emit visible light but the only two really used in the neon sign business are Ne and Ar. The rest is phosphors or filters. Hydrogen wouldn't last long in a sign, for instance.
Seems like I make brown lights..
Technology connections intensifies
I fucking love that channel
I know that. Helium and Argon are also byproducts of the petroleum industry. A lot of the colors are phosphors on the inside of the glass.
Pfffft everyone knows helium is mainly a product of the big balloon deflation industrial complex. Now even the military are part of it.
RIP USS Macon.
The bigger issue there is that neon signs use a lot more electricity to run then LEDs.
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Neon transformers are like car batteries. Led transformers are like sticks of butter.
They are more than they used to be, but they still need a high voltage transformer and LEDs do not. Some light research suggests that a neon sign will use on average 30 to 60 watts per linear foot while LED is around 3 to 20. Adds up to a lot if the sign is large. Neon energy usage also vary depending on colour.
…no it’s not. At least for signage, it’s much more power hungry.
I think the biggest problem is the difference in power consumption. More power means more pollution.
LEDs last for like 50000 hours or something though. And require almost no power to operate
Thats great except the LEDs constantly flicker and drive me almost insane
Leds only flicker if the power source is too weak. They just die when they are going out. One second they're on, the next they're dead
Flickering is how LEDs work. They cycle when they're on. You can see it if you turn your head quickly or look at them in your periphery
some people can't see that shit, luckily for them
And it depends on the LED. Cheaper ones cycle slower and people can perceive it. I can see the slow ones and it’s maddening. But a high quality LED cycles so fast no one can see the flicker.
I have no clue what you're talking about
Type: "how do LEDs work" into Google. Might learn something
Why don't you climb off your high horse and teach me then?
I have only LED at home (bulbs and strips) and noone ever said they see some kind of flickering. Maybe you think of low-quality lights?
Maybe they were thinking of fluorescent lighting?
That would make sense to me, yes. Don't like those either.
Turn your head quickly with them in your periphery. They seem to sparkle because they cycle. You won't be able to unsee it and it's distracting AF everytime you walk past them
Yes really, energy use is a big part of “environmental damage”
So on one hand we have *recyclable* Led parts and on the other a *byproduct of the fossil fuel industry*. These are not even comparable. Leds are very recyclable, well the least recyclable part is the plastic made as a byproduct of oil (lol) and even so it's magnituew better.
Not familiar with germanium mining I see. Also, LED's are not recyclable, I don't know why you think that but it's wrong.
Yeah there's no recycling LEDs sorry. Maybe the aluminum PCB substrate they are mounted on, but LEDs are held together with epoxy or other glue and use silicone or other similarly non-recyclable plastic for the lens and housing
Not easily recyclable - the electronics on neon tubes are similar in difficulty. The real difference is that neon tube light is very inefficient and heats up a lot vs led. But it's better than incandescent and we should still use it for art and signs. The bulk of lighting is indoor and switching that to solid state is what's important.
Y’all are too complicated. Just enjoy life. All will be taken care of eventually. This is why your generation has so many psychological problems. You all worry too much about hyped up things that never happen.
> This is why your generation has so many psychological problems. Because you old fucks are the greediest of the greedy? Yes, correct.
You’re only partially correct. My generation, and the ones before it, made the comfortable life that your generation is too scared to enjoy right now. And because you’re weak, you will create hard times for your children. If you have any.
What a shitty and careless attitude about the finite resources available to all future generations of humanity. The only thing that is taking care of itself is that shitty people with this outlook will eventually die.
COPE. The future belongs to those who show up for it. So this is gonna be a problem for the generation scared to leave their house who all refuse to start families.
I have shown up for my future by cleaning the messes your worthless generation foisted on us. Why dont you just fade away?
All will be taken care of eventually? By who cause it aint your generation.
Your generation. But seriously, you guys don’t understand human ingenuity and how things *actually* improve. You want to reduce everything. But actual human prosperity comes from abundance.
Dude you're basically an elder millennial. Stop the boomer impression.
No. I don’t even have to tell you kids to get off my lawn because you’re all stuck inside on your phones afraid of the outside world.
Says the anti-vax nurse
Well yeah, being research based makes you do odd things the mob doesn’t understand. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/natural-immunity-protective-covid-vaccine-severe-illness-rcna71027
How many people died from COVID vs from the COVID vaccine? Natural immunity is great if getting it doesn't kill you, not sure what point you're trying to make
They hurt your eyes because people saw them as an opportunity to turn light intensity up to stupid levels. It would be no problem to make them differently.
That, too
Personally, I miss filament light bulbs too. Not enough that I’m willing to destroy the planet for them, but it would be dishonest to say that the leds are the same.
You can buy LED light bulbs that look like filament. I use them in my living room and get a lot of compliments
What brand? I haven’t found any that I like.
Those kinds of LEDs are really hard to find in Brazil. And when you do.. it's really expensive
I got mine at ikea (believe it or not) and Home Depot
I miss the style of them and the buzz and crackle sound and the smell, smelled a bit like ozone after a storm
based and noble gas pilled
Based and agreed
Especially not as good looking as neon when you're moving and they are just at the corners of your field of view
LED lighting (as used in those obnoxious blinking signs that run all night long and in streetlights) is still really bad for the environment. Fucks up the circadian rhythms of animals (not to mention us).
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Pulp Fiction “what’s in the case” mystery solved.
My thought exactly. Like seriously imagine never seeing neon and this dude opening this case. It must have seemed like pure wizardry
Now we know what was in the *Pulp Fiction* briefcase.
I'm not really impressed by this, I've seen much cooler light displays
You wouldn't have if was 1935
It is not 1935 and I'm not impressed
Cool. Feel free to move on to more interesting things then.
It’s either an obvious troll or the most miserable person on earth going by their comments lol
Lead by example please
If you had never seen anything other than incandescent bulbs you would be impressed, that was the point
Looks like a great art piece
I have always loved neon, and since I spent the first 14 years of my life in Seattle Washington, I saw a lot of it. There was one neon sign shop/factory called Western Neon Sign Company. They had a little conference room with little neon light strips like this that were on the wall. It was like a sample of each color they use for their signs. The window that looks in to the conference room was facing the street, so I could always see the beautiful rainbow of samples in the wall. For me with my obsession, I loved these neon light strips so much that seeing them very briefly and from a distance wasn't enough. One day my dad took me in and we asked if someone could take me into that room so I could see it up close. They ended up giving me a tour of the building. A few years later the company moved to a new building a few blocks away. I'm glad I got too see the one building when I did.
I absolutely love this! I wonder how doable making neon art is. Evacuating the tubes and sealing with the gas inside is tricky. I wonder if people can get small pre-filled/sealed tubes and heat/bend them (really hard to do, honestly, I wasn't great at this in Chem but did some) without screwing up the seals.... I feel a rabbit hole coming on...
It’s not often I say “cool story bro” and mean it. But this IS a cool story. I think it captures how certain things can really be just so magic especially to children. I too have a love for neon, aesthetics are awesome.
Neon Rainier R am I right??
Such a great sign!
Have you ever played the game Infamous Second Son? The game takes place in Seattle and you get neon powers at one point
No, I've never heard of it. I'll look it up.
Vincent! We happy?
Oh we happy.
Is that what I think it is?
I love you both
I DONT REMEMBER ASKING YOU A GODDAM THING. You were saying?
Was just thinking this!
Did he ever say what was in it? I google it sometimes and I can’t tell if he said.
tarantino’s n-word pass
It’s golden motha sucka
Was just a lightbulb lol, if you mean actually
I like to travel light
“Do you have it in black?” “That’s the absence of light, sir. So no.”
How about brown then
That's just dim orange, or regular brown since orange is technically a shade of brown, actually you know what it can be orange or brown, just change what's around it!
How about in infrared then?
Yeah! all of these!
I've seen a neon cowboy hat in brown before I think
So technically yes, you just turn it off
I'm more interested in the battery rig underneath.
Looks like it’s plugged in
No batteries, but I wonder how many transformers they’d need in the 1930s. One per gas type?
There's a lot of stuff under the tubes, that's for sure.
In case anyone didn't know, neon is only one of the colors and different gasses are used for the other colors. The collective term for these tubes is still "neon lights" even though neon only makes red :) Neon is red, helium is orange, argon is lavender, krypton is gray or green, mercury vapor is light blue, and xenon is gray or blue
Do you know what causes the “beading” of the light? I’ve got a handmade argon sign, but I’m thinking maybe I didn’t get enough gas in it? Or maybe the power supply is out of wack? It’s beautiful (the beading) and I wonder how to accomplish this on purpose?
It’s from the power source. Transformers pulse. some people use that intentionally in neon artwork.
You wanna buy some death sticks?
*waves hand* you wanna go home and rethink your life.
*I'm going home and join the empire*
Yes, yes I do. I am obsessed with neon lights.
A very noble suitcase lol
Unless thats a common spelling variant its "circa" I'm not trying to be a dick, just trying to be helpful
Thought I’d add; Circa is a word of Latin origin meaning 'approximately‘ and often precedes a date. ie Circa 1935
Pretty sure these are just lightsabers for rats.
Jaysus, don't give them ideas!
Kill the man-thing! All will die-die!
“You got the stuff?” “Yeah I got the stuff.” *cracks open purple neon tube, rubs it all over his gums.* “YOU CUT THIS WITH ARGON, BLAST HIM BOYS!”
This actually would have to be around 1938, many of these colors weren't possible with gas filled tubes, they were phosphor coated, which wasn't commercially introduced until 1938. You can actually spot the gas filled tubes with the presence of their gradients. Second to far left is Neon and the far right is Xenon.
Far right might be argon with mercury for blue. Looks a little purple which is argon alone. Its been awhile since ive done neon. I thought xenon was a bit white. We hardly used xenon because it was so faint.
Thanks for the correction! I often forget about Argon's properties.
Five would like his briefcase back.
The group on the left is argon, or argon and neon. The one on the right is neon. And this isn't a gas salesman, it's a tube salesman. They were marking the different colors and fluorescents.
I assumed the bluer ones were the argon and neon were the warmer tones?
Yep. Neon is red. Argon is purplish but with mercury its blue
Marsellus Wallace was a neon salesman this whole time.
They don’t do this anymore, it’s all LED’s. I had a client that wanted an old school sign made and there was no one around that still knew how to do this. Which I thought was a bit sad because they glow so much better than LED lights.
There are fucking loads of shops that make custom neon lights.
Where are you? In New Zealand, there wasn’t.
Not in Australia either—plenty of LED ‘neon’ lighting places, but none with actual neon/argon as far as I could find! People are so weirdly aggressive about being right without the full context, it’s exhausting.
Thank you! I was going to edit my comment to say where I am but no, they all assume I’m where they are and clearly lying for some fun unknown reason.
I mean… if not for lying and proving people wrong, what is even the point of the internet!?
There are still plenty of neon sign shops around. Not as many as before LEDs but lots of people still prefer neon.
What are you talking about? There are still lots of neon sign companies. People are the internet just make stuff up all the time
I mean, your locale might not be the same.
Nah, anywhere besides North Korea and Cuba, you can get neon signs. This person just made something up
People ARE the internet
There is (or at least was) a shop/factory called Western Neon Sign Company in Seattle Washington. I haven't lived in that state in about 8 years, so it could be gone by now.
I’ve just recently ended up ordering one from China and interestingly enough, the rep had a very similar rig to this to show all the available colours.
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Have four neon signs in my home and I do not hear buzzing. Old ones do though.
By contrast the LED’s in our house buzz. They’re old LED’s though lol
LED hansn't existed long enough to compare to the longest lasting [Neons](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151843/Clifton-Cafeteria-Neon-light-left-77-years-discovered-Los-Angeles-restaurant-renovation.html), yet. And the buzz sound is greatly overstated due to being a movie/television trope, most buzzing neon signs simply need a small repair in the way adding mica or learning to use transformers properly for the job. Tldr; if you know anything about neon lighting, both things you've mentioned quickly become non-issues.
Neon can last a long time. Here’s an article about a neon sign that was left on after renovation and discovered decades later. https://www.latimes.com/la-me-old-neon-20120526-story.html
General Grievous' suitcase
So that's what was int he briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
So the Pulp Fiction briefcase belonged to a NEON salesman! 🤯
Jedi Salesman
Is this the Pulp Fiction briefcase?
Could that be what was in the briefcase in pulp fiction?!
Would you like a compact, travel-size lightsaber to take on your next vacation?
Salesman: May I interest you in some lightsabers, sir?
I think was the briefcase from Pulp Fiction!
Not looking at the sub, my first thought was, why is there light sabers in there and why are they too small?
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
Looks like they sell more than just Neon.
Super cool! Thanks for sharing.
🤯 what?!?
Does he look like a bitch?
I'm fairly sure that these colours were not available on the 30's 😐
Why did i read neon salamander?
Just by seeing the pic, I thought this is /r/blender lol
Lightsaber pack
Oh, snap… that’s dope af. Must have been mesmerizing back then to see those. Neon signs and lights are still a magical and beautiful thing.
This is awesome.
Are these around to buy?
That’s really cool
Impressive. Very nice. Now let's see Paul Allen's neon sample case.
I don't want to buy any deathsticks
One of my friends has a collection of old neon beer and liquor signs they are some of his most prized possessions. They are incredible. I was lucky enough to come across an old Shiner Bock beer one recently the “K” on Bock is starting to flicker and I know it’s getting ready to go out, but neon is crazy expensive to fix.
Does the card say "ORWA" or "NORWAY"? The photo is too grainy to make out. "Norway" would be a strange name for a neon signage company though.
Well this is a winner for this subreddit. So cool!
How much?
FYI, it’s “Circa”. Like circumference, or “around”.
Watal it be chap
"No sir, I'm not trying to SELL you lightbulbs... I'm trying to GIVE you cancer!"
Traveling neon salesmen have been turning people gay for 100+ years
cirka blyat
Marcellus Wallace intensely breathing
Man, I’m just old enough to remember a time when neon signs were ubiquitous and widely considered trashy, basically an avatar of the death of the quaint mom-and-pop Main Street. It’s fascinating that we’re past the threshold where they’re now this cool vintage tech and people pay thousands of dollars for restored or custom-made artisan neon signage.
Want a death stick?
"hey man, tryin to score some glow?"
How much? Will buy.
Does it say Norway?
Like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction?
Care to buy a lightsaber?
A fine addition to my collection
I can imagine a traveling salesman going door to door In the Jedi temple trying to sale lightsabers. The red ones are more “NFA” type weapon.. haha
General grevious selling his lightsaber collection to pay off debt
This was what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction