You must have seen the name boards and advertising signboards on shops glowing in red and orange at night in cities. You must have observed such lights during parties and festivals too. What makes these lights glow in such fashion is a gas called neon.
Neon is widely used in ornamental lighting because when electrical discharge passes through the gas, it produces a red glow. In 1902, Georges Claude, a French inventor and engineer, started producing neon lights commercially.
Neon has no colour or smell. The element gets its name from the Greek word ‘neos’ meaning ‘new’. British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers discovered neon in 1898. Neon is the fourth-most abundant element in the Universe, but not on Earth.
Among elements, neon is a recluse. Like a stubborn child, it refuses to form compounds with other elements, or react to any other substance. This is one reason for its scarcity in the air, because natural compounds of neon would have prevented its escape from the Earth’s atmosphere.
The amount of neon in the air is not so much. Since it is a rare element, it is fairly costly too. Producing liquid neon is about 55 times more expensive than producing liquid helium.
Neon has an atomic number of ten. Its atomic symbol is Ne.
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