Monoatomic gases -- helium, argon, xenon, and neon -- were discovered by a British chemist in 1898. In 1910, a French inventor put some neon in a test tube, sent an electric current through it, and was rewarded with a jewel-like glow. Parisian sign makers immediately began filling glass tubes twisted into shapes and words with electrified neon for advertising.
In 1923, an L.A. car dealer visiting Paris ordered a neon sign for his Wilshire Boulevard dealership, thereby intoducing neon to the U.S.
Finally, in 1931, Thomas Young, a lighting businessman from Ogden, Utah, filled an order for a neon sign for the Oasis Club on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas -- the first of thousands of neon signs supplied by Young's firm, the Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO).
Neon, thus, has been associated with Las Vegas for nearly as long as legalized gambling has: 63 years. Sadly, the Oasis Club neon sign is long gone.
