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2008-11-10 100 years later, neon still glowing bright
Nat Chamberlin savors the buzz she gets from old neon signs.
"The reason that I like the sound ... it reminds me of the lab in Frankenstein, or better yet Grandpa's lab in 'The Munsters,' " Chamberlin says. "When I hear that 'buzzing' sound, it's usually because I'm standing next to a pretty old neon sign ... which, to me, is an honor, and I could listen to it all day."
Sign Works, the company she owns with husband Christopher, is helping to write the next chapter in neon. While preservationists rescue old signs, the Chamberlins' company, located in the Design Zone of the Strip District, has created signs for the Double Wide Grill, Tiki Lounge and Piper's Pub, all on the South Side. They've also branched out into interior design, creating neon chandeliers.
While LED.Leds or lighting.light-emitting diodes, are used increasingly to illuminate enclosed exterior signs, nothing can replicate the old-school glow of neon, whether it's the sign above Dee's Cafe on the South Side or the iconic red-and-white Heinz Ketchup bottle on the Sen. John Heinz Regional History Center in the Strip District.
"In the early years, Pittsburgh didn't hide its light under a bushel basket," says Andy Masich, president and CEO of the History Center. Neon was a great way to announce to the world that we had something special going on here. "
The History Center also has the original neon signs from Isaly's and from Klein's restaurant, with its famous lobster claw that opens and closes. Masich says they were offered the iconic W's from the Westinghouse sign, but they were too big.
"The W's, they were 30 or 40 feet tall," he says. "They were enormous."
Neon doesn't really deserve its temperamental reputation, says Christopher Chamberlin of Sign Works. He gestures to a blue-and-orange Pabst beer sign in the studio.
"It's high maintenance, because it's glass and it's easily damaged," he says. "But if you let it sit there for 50 years and don't bang it or bump it, chances are it's going to keep on running."
Neon accounts for about 20 percent of total sales at Sign Works, co-owner Chamberlin says. Orders for neon have declined slightly in the past year, he says.
"It's still a steady thing and it's still a good chunk of our business."
Neon triggers a range of associations: a seedy motel or dive bars in a film noir; the gaudy, pulsating skyline of the Las Vegas strip or New York's Times Square; the Art Deco tracing on a roadside diner or a pilfered neon beer sign decorating your college dorm room.
The neon tube, designed in 1909 by Frenchman Georges Claude, debuted in America in 1923, when a Los Angeles car dealership bought two signs that spelled out "Packard." Neon really took off after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, when bars sought a way to advertise.
Artist, photographer and amateur neon historian Chuck Biddle produces colored-pencil drawings from photos of vintage neon signs.
"Visually, I think it's probably the single most transformative invention of the commercial landscape of the 20th century," Biddle says. "Neon, when it appeared in the '30s in this country, literally transformed the ability of signmakers to get the attention of customers and have an impact. I mean, you could literally write and draw in light. To this day, they look futuristic and part of the past at the same time."
He grew up in Elizabeth in the '50s above the Gondolier, a restaurant owned by his parents. In the parking lot was the restaurant's name written, naturally, in neon. Biddle recalls a number of neon signs from Western Pennsylvania that he wishes could have been salvaged.
"My parents Christmas shopped in McKeesport for years and years. There was an absolutely incredible sign -- Goodman's Jewelers, a vertical sign that ended at sidewalk level with an engagement ring."
At Sign Works, Nigel Ruggiero bends glass tubing after heating it on a crossfire, a pincer-like contraption that emits two horizontal jets of purple flame. It's used for making tight bends. A ribbon burner, which produces a long, straight flame, is used to make curves and circles. She uses three kinds of torches.
Neon provides the orange-pink color while argon gas turns blue. Fluorescent powder in the tubes is used to produce other colors.
Ruggiero formed her own company, the Neon Arcade, which she co-owns with husband John. They work in the same building as Sign Works. She executes neon designs for about 20 sign companies. She says she's had steady work until about two years ago, when LEDs began to be used in place of some neon signs.
"It's just learning how to handle molten glass in our hands," she says. "I liken it to playing an instrument."
Neon doesn't use a great deal of power, she says. "If you took 50 feet of straight neon tubing and ran it off of a 15,000-volt transformer, it consumes the same amount of electricity as a 75-watt light bulb," she says.
Bill Martin, owner of Dee's Cafe, says the sign there has been up for 30 years.
"It's one of a kind. It's like old school. We're kind of like a bar that's back in the '50s and '60s. I take pride in my place," he says.
For Robert Thompson, professor of media and culture and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, the invention of neon was a more radical innovation than the electric light bulb. Thomas Edison's invention might have given rise to urban America, but it essentially replicated the single point of light that had been previously provided by a candle or whale lamp.
"Neon changes the whole concept of Lighting," Thompson says, "What it does, it's able to convert language into light. It's able to convert pictures into light. Anything you can imagine, you can shape into neon. The concept that you can take a light bulb and stretch it into text, the shape of pink flamingo or a bunny, let me see a whale lamp do that."
"The reason that I like the sound ... it reminds me of the lab in Frankenstein, or better yet Grandpa's lab in 'The Munsters,' " Chamberlin says. "When I hear that 'buzzing' sound, it's usually because I'm standing next to a pretty old neon sign ... which, to me, is an honor, and I could listen to it all day."
Sign Works, the company she owns with husband Christopher, is helping to write the next chapter in neon. While preservationists rescue old signs, the Chamberlins' company, located in the Design Zone of the Strip District, has created signs for the Double Wide Grill, Tiki Lounge and Piper's Pub, all on the South Side. They've also branched out into interior design, creating neon chandeliers.
While LED.Leds or lighting.light-emitting diodes, are used increasingly to illuminate enclosed exterior signs, nothing can replicate the old-school glow of neon, whether it's the sign above Dee's Cafe on the South Side or the iconic red-and-white Heinz Ketchup bottle on the Sen. John Heinz Regional History Center in the Strip District.
"In the early years, Pittsburgh didn't hide its light under a bushel basket," says Andy Masich, president and CEO of the History Center. Neon was a great way to announce to the world that we had something special going on here. "
The History Center also has the original neon signs from Isaly's and from Klein's restaurant, with its famous lobster claw that opens and closes. Masich says they were offered the iconic W's from the Westinghouse sign, but they were too big.
"The W's, they were 30 or 40 feet tall," he says. "They were enormous."
Neon doesn't really deserve its temperamental reputation, says Christopher Chamberlin of Sign Works. He gestures to a blue-and-orange Pabst beer sign in the studio.
"It's high maintenance, because it's glass and it's easily damaged," he says. "But if you let it sit there for 50 years and don't bang it or bump it, chances are it's going to keep on running."
Neon accounts for about 20 percent of total sales at Sign Works, co-owner Chamberlin says. Orders for neon have declined slightly in the past year, he says.
"It's still a steady thing and it's still a good chunk of our business."
Neon triggers a range of associations: a seedy motel or dive bars in a film noir; the gaudy, pulsating skyline of the Las Vegas strip or New York's Times Square; the Art Deco tracing on a roadside diner or a pilfered neon beer sign decorating your college dorm room.
The neon tube, designed in 1909 by Frenchman Georges Claude, debuted in America in 1923, when a Los Angeles car dealership bought two signs that spelled out "Packard." Neon really took off after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, when bars sought a way to advertise.
Artist, photographer and amateur neon historian Chuck Biddle produces colored-pencil drawings from photos of vintage neon signs.
"Visually, I think it's probably the single most transformative invention of the commercial landscape of the 20th century," Biddle says. "Neon, when it appeared in the '30s in this country, literally transformed the ability of signmakers to get the attention of customers and have an impact. I mean, you could literally write and draw in light. To this day, they look futuristic and part of the past at the same time."
He grew up in Elizabeth in the '50s above the Gondolier, a restaurant owned by his parents. In the parking lot was the restaurant's name written, naturally, in neon. Biddle recalls a number of neon signs from Western Pennsylvania that he wishes could have been salvaged.
"My parents Christmas shopped in McKeesport for years and years. There was an absolutely incredible sign -- Goodman's Jewelers, a vertical sign that ended at sidewalk level with an engagement ring."
At Sign Works, Nigel Ruggiero bends glass tubing after heating it on a crossfire, a pincer-like contraption that emits two horizontal jets of purple flame. It's used for making tight bends. A ribbon burner, which produces a long, straight flame, is used to make curves and circles. She uses three kinds of torches.
Neon provides the orange-pink color while argon gas turns blue. Fluorescent powder in the tubes is used to produce other colors.
Ruggiero formed her own company, the Neon Arcade, which she co-owns with husband John. They work in the same building as Sign Works. She executes neon designs for about 20 sign companies. She says she's had steady work until about two years ago, when LEDs began to be used in place of some neon signs.
"It's just learning how to handle molten glass in our hands," she says. "I liken it to playing an instrument."
Neon doesn't use a great deal of power, she says. "If you took 50 feet of straight neon tubing and ran it off of a 15,000-volt transformer, it consumes the same amount of electricity as a 75-watt light bulb," she says.
Bill Martin, owner of Dee's Cafe, says the sign there has been up for 30 years.
"It's one of a kind. It's like old school. We're kind of like a bar that's back in the '50s and '60s. I take pride in my place," he says.
For Robert Thompson, professor of media and culture and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, the invention of neon was a more radical innovation than the electric light bulb. Thomas Edison's invention might have given rise to urban America, but it essentially replicated the single point of light that had been previously provided by a candle or whale lamp.
"Neon changes the whole concept of Lighting," Thompson says, "What it does, it's able to convert language into light. It's able to convert pictures into light. Anything you can imagine, you can shape into neon. The concept that you can take a light bulb and stretch it into text, the shape of pink flamingo or a bunny, let me see a whale lamp do that."
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