My dear "Love" Lamp

What is the perfect gift for St. Valentine's Day ? It definitely is the 'I love you ' lamp with a green leaf and a red heart.

After switching the electricity on the bulb lights - the hearts glow in red and the letters in green. Actually, it is not the hearts that glow but the reddish mist around them.

The bulb is filled with noble gas, neon under low pressure. The electrical discharge in neon creates red afterglow. The plate with the words is covered with a fluorescent paint which glows in green under bombardment of discharged electrons.

Nowadays it is very difficult to find a neon-filled bulb which would glow in red. The so-called 'neon' bulbs contain argon and mercury and glow in white (or argon and sodium, and glow in yellow). Similarly, a 'real' fluorescent screen glowing in green and covered with zinc sulphide can be found only in old oscilloscopes or black and white TV sets.