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 are filled with an inert gas to reduce evaporation of the filament and prevent its oxidation. The gas is at a pressure of about . The role of the gas is to prevent evaporation of the filament, but the fill must be chosen carefully to avoid introducing significant heat losses. For these properties, chemical inertness and high atomic or molecular weight is desirable. The presence of gas molecules knocks the liberated tungsten atoms back to the filament, reducing its evaporation and allowing it to be operated at higher temperature without reducing its life (or, for operating at the same temperature,