Gas-discharge lamp they create light from electricity considerably more efficiently than incandescent light bulbs. The father of the low-pressure gas discharge tube was German glassblower Heinrich Geissler, who beginning in 1857 constructed colorful artistic cold cathode tubes with different gases in them which glowed with many different colors, called Geissler tubes. It was found that inert gases like the noble gases neon, argon, krypton or xenon, as well as carbon dioxide worked well in tubes. This technology was commercialized by French engineer Georges Claude in 1910 and became neon lighting, used in neon signs. The introduction of the metal vapor lamp, including
Incandescent light bulb filament diameter. Thin-filament, low-power bulbs benefit less from a fill gas, so are often only evacuated. Early lightbulbs with carbon filaments also used carbon monoxide, nitrogen, or mercury vapor. However, carbon filaments operate at lower temperatures than tungsten ones, so the effect of the fill gas was not significant as the heat losses offset any benefits. Early bulbs were laboriously assembled by hand. After automatic machinery was developed, the cost of bulbs fell. Until 1910, when Libbey's Westlake machine went into production, bulbs were generally produced by a team of three workers (two gatherers and a master gaffer) blowing the