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When the Hoover Dam was completed in 1936,
当胡佛水电站于1936年建成后，
it created a huge source of hydroelectric power and zapped a sleepy desert town to life: Las Vegas, Nevada.
它成为了水力发电的巨大源头，并使一座寂静的沙漠小镇恢复了生机：内达华州的拉斯维加斯。
With the power supply from the dam, Las Vegas soon exploded with vibrant displays.
拥有了来自水坝的电力供应后，色彩鲜艳的广告牌很快在拉斯维加斯涌现。
The source of these dazzling lights was electrified neon gas.
这些耀眼的灯光来源于带电的氖气。
There are two tricky obstacles to making lighted signs out of this naturally clear, odorless gas: capturing it and making it glow.
用这种无色无味的天然气体来制作灯光标志，会面临两个棘手的障碍：那就是获取以及使它发光。
French inventor Georges Claude came up with techniques to do both.
法国发明家乔治·克劳德想出了能解决那两个问题的技术。
In 1902, he developed a way of liquefying and separating specific gases from the air, producing neon on an industrial scale for the first time.
在1902年，他研发出了一种能从空气中液化并分离特定气体的方法，第一次以工业规模生产氖气。
By 1910, he had come up with a way to trap the gas in a glass tube with a special electrode at either end, and neon lighting was born.
1910年，他想出了一种方法：将气体充满玻璃管，并一种特殊的电极接在玻璃管两端，霓虹灯就这样诞生了。
In workshops like Claude's, artisans known as tube-benders made neon signs by hand.
在像克劳德这样的工作间中，是由被称为弯管匠的手工艺人来制作霓虹灯广告牌。
The tube-benders heated small sections of a long, hollow glass tube and quickly bent them into shape.
弯管匠加热长而中空的玻璃管的一小部分，然后快速将它们塑形。
After the glass cooled, they attached electrodes to each end and removed the air with a vacuum pump.
玻璃管冷却后，他们会将电极固定在两端，然后用真空泵抽除气体。
Then, they passed a high voltage current through the tube to remove any impurities on the inside of the glass.
接着，他们让高压电流通过管子以除去玻璃内部的杂质。
Finally, they pumped the neon gas in and sealed off the electrodes.
最后，他们将氖气注入并将电极封住。
When a neon sign is turned on, the electric current causes some of the neon atoms' electrons to accelerate and break free of their orbits,
当霓虹灯广告牌被打开，电流使一些氖原子的电子加速并脱离轨道，
leaving behind positively charged ions.
留下大量带正电荷的离子。
As these free electrons rush from one electrode to the other, they collide with more neon atoms, causing them to ionize as well.
当这些自由电子从电极的一端涌向另一端，它们会与更多的氖原子碰撞，并使自身也离子化。
When these excited electrons fall back to their normal energy levels, their excess energy is carried away by photons, or particles of light.
当这些激发态的电子回到它们的正常能级时，它们多余的能量会被光子或光粒子带走。
All this happens in an instant, and the glow from the photons is what we see when we switch on a neon sign.
这些全部发生在一瞬间，光子所发出的光便是我们看到的开启的霓虹灯广告牌。
Though it's common to call any gas-filled sign a "neon" sign, there are actually 5 different gases used in production.
我们通常把充满气体的灯统称为“霓虹灯”，但事实上，有五种不同的气体用于填充。
Each gas emits photons of a different wavelength when electrified, which correspond to different colors of light.
每种气体在带电时会发射不同波长的光子，这些光子对应着不同的颜色。
Neon gives off an orange-red glow, argon glows a pale lavender, helium a dusty pink, krypton a silver-white, and xenon a light purple.
氖气发出橙红色的光，氩气发出淡紫色的光，氦气是浅灰粉色，氪气是银白色，氙气是亮紫色。
These 5 gases can be combined with color-coated tubing to create an electrified rainbow of text and images.
这五种气体可以和彩色涂层管结合，创造出由文字和图像组成的彩虹。
Business owners soon realized how effective these colorful beacons were for attracting customers.
商人们很快意识到这些五彩斑斓的灯标能够非常有效地吸引顾客。
And unlike a light bulb, a neon sign has no incandescent filaments to burn out,
不像电灯泡，霓虹灯广告牌不需要燃烧白炽灯丝，
and can shine continuously for 40 years before the gas depletes.
并且能在气体耗尽前持续工作40年。
By the 1930s, neon signs were lighting up storefronts all over the world.
到了20世纪30年代，霓虹灯广告牌在世界各地的店铺亮起。
Because of the glass tubes' fragile nature, it usually wasn't feasible to ship them over long distances.
因为玻璃管易碎的性质，长距离的运输对于霓虹灯来说通常是不可行的。
Instead, most neon signs were created by local neon shops and then installed nearby.
所以大多数霓虹灯广告牌是由当地的霓虹灯商店制造并在附近安装。
Signs with humor, personality, and intricate designs proliferated, no two exactly alike.
幽默、个性和复杂的广告牌设计不断涌现，没有两个一模一样的。
But by the end of World War II, plastics had become widely available and inexpensive,
但是到第二次世界大战的尾声时，塑料普遍变得可用且便宜，
and plastic signs supplanted neon as messengers of modernity.
塑料广告牌作为现代化的信使取代了霓虹灯广告牌。
Many towns removed neon signs they viewed as old-fashioned.
很多城镇移除了在他们看来已经过时的霓虹灯广告牌。
Today, neon sign production is only a fraction of what it was at its peak, but the craft of tube bending lives on relatively unchanged.
如今，霓虹灯广告牌的生产仅是之前高峰时期的零头，但弯管的手艺，相对而言依然如故地继续存在着。
New creations hand-crafted by local artisans join survivors from the heyday of neon, hiding in plain sight in city streets around the world.
当地工匠手工制作的创新产品加入了霓虹灯全盛时期的幸存广告牌中，躲藏在世界各地城市街道平淡无奇的地方。
