Nutting, Perley G. (Designer); Sperling, Edward O. (Creator)
Institution
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Date Made
1904
Narrative
This one of four luminous script signs, which read “HYDROGEN,” “HELIUM,” “NEON,” and “ARGON,” and were designed by Perley G. Nutting of the light and optical instruments section of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). The glass tubes were blown by Edward O. Sperling in the NBS Instrument Shops in 1904, and they were exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri the summer of that same year. Nutting’s work at NBS involved the investigation of electric discharges in gases relating to spectrum analysis. Plücker tubes, such as these glass script signs, were electric discharge tubes containing gases at low pressure. When electric discharges excited the noble gas in the tubes, the tubes lit up with a reddish glow. Nutting’s replacement of the thin platinum wire inside the tubes with rod or disk aluminum electrodes (such as the 2 cm plate electrodes used in the luminous script signs) enabled his design to emit a much brighter and steadier light than previous versions. Nutting’s work was a forerunner of the neon signs and fluorescent lamps that became commercially available beginning in 1930.
Publications
M. W. Travers, The Discovery of the Rare Gases (London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1928); NMAH, “Signs from the past,” O Say Can You See? Stories from the National Museum of American History, published April 12, 2012, accessed September 25, 2017, http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/04/signs-from-the-past-part-1.html ; P. G. Nutting, “On secondary spectra and the conditions under which they may be produced,” Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards 1, no. 1 (1904): 83-94, http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/bulletin.006 ; Rexmond C. Cochrane, Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards, NBS Miscellaneous Publication 275 (Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Commerce, 1974), 79, 82-83, https://doi.org/10.6028/NBS.MP.275 ; William F. Meggers, interview by Rexmond C. Cochrane, August 4, 1964.
Object Dimensions
[W] 6.5 cm [L] 18 cm
Rights
Use of the images from NIST Digital Archives is not restricted, but a statement of attribution is required. Please use the following attribution statement: "National Institute of Standards and Technology Digital Collections, Gaithersburg, MD 20899"
