Everything you want to know about Neon
Neon is a resource that many people know almost nothing about. Neon is an element classified as a noble gas with an atomic weight of 20.180. The other 5 noble gases are helium, argon, krypton, zenon, and radon. They are part of Group 18 of the Periodic Table. Neon is also considered an inert gas because it does not react easily with other elements. In fact, it has been impossible so far to make neon react with any other elements. It has the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a colourless, odourless, and tasteless gas. It has about two thrids the density of air.
Neon was discovered in 1898 by British scientists William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers, in London, England. It was discovered when William Ramsay chilled a sample of air until it became liquid, then heated the liquid and examined the gases that boiled off from the liquid. Of those gases, a few were unidentified, one of them being neon. It was named neon after Ramsay's son suggested it be named after the Greek word "neos", meaning new.
Neon has many uses. Most people are familiar with that fact that neon is used in lighting and big, bright, colourful neon signs. However, neon is a colourless gas. The color happens when neon gas is put in a glass tube and an electric current is passed through it. This excites the particles in the gas, causing the gas to have a reddish-orange glow. This is how neon is used for neon signs. To create other colours, it is mixed with other gases, e.g. Helium(yellow), Carbon Dioxide(white), Mercury(blue). Neon lighting was invented by French Chemist Georges Claude, who displayed the first neon sign in Paris, France in 1910.
Neon is used in glow lamps, electron tubes, plasma studies, fluorescent starter tubes, tv tubes, gas lasers, and cryogenic refrigeration. Liquid neon has 40 times more refrigerating capacity per unit than liquid helium, and 3 times that of liquid hydrogen, making it a very economical cryogenic refrigerant.
9