Neon-type sign, "Helium"
date: label: date made
content: 1904
label: associated date
content: 1904
name: label: maker
content: National Bureau of Standards
label: maker
content: Sperling, Edward O.
label: designer
content: Nutting, Perley Gilman
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Luminous Sign with helium gas designed by Perley Gilman Nutting (1873–1949) and made by Edward O. Sperling at the National Bureau of Standards. Exhibited at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.
label: Description
content: Label found with object reads: "Luminous Sign Designed by P. G. Nutting / Made by Sperling / National Bureau of Standards / Exhibited at St. Louis Exposition 1904".
label: Description
content: From Rexmond C. Cochrane, Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards (Washington, D.C., U. S. Dept. of Commerce, 1974), 83.
label: Description
content: “When free from Exposition commitments, the electrical staff carried out considerable routine testing and even some research in its Palace laboratory. More a novelty resulting from Nutting's gas spectra work than a piece of serious research, however, were the luminous script signs in glass tubing exhibited by the staff at the fair. When excited by electric discharges, the noble (inert) gas in the tubes—it was neon—lit up with a reddish glow.”
label: Description
content: Note 59: “Dr. Nutting's neon signs—two special glass tubes blown by Mr. Sperling in the Bureau shops, one reading "HELIUM," the other "NBS"—resulted from a modification he made in the laboratory instrument known as the Plücker tube and reported in NBS Scientific Paper No. 6, "Some new rectifying effects in conducting gases" (1904). The Plücker tube, like the earlier Geissler tube, was used in the study of spectra of gases and metals. By substituting or disk aluminum electrodes for the thin platinum wire in the tube, Nutting obtained a much steadier and brighter light. Although never made public, the neon phenomenon has long been considered the Bureau's first notable laboratory accomplishment, and the forerunner of modern neon signs and fluorescent lamps. Interview with Dr. William F, Meggers, Aug. 4, 1964.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
label: See more items in
content: Electric Lamps
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from the Estate of Edith R. Meggers, thru Howard Kolodny
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.334754
label: catalog number
content: 334754
label: accession number
content: 314637
objectType: label: Object Name
content: discharge lamp
label: Object Name
content: neon sign
label: Other Terms
content: discharge lamp; Lighting Devices
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 3/4 in x 17 1/2 in x 2 3/4 in; 19.685 cm x 44.45 cm x 6.985 cm