10 Ne

On this date in 1915 the electric Neon discharge tube sign is patented in the United States for use in advertising by Frenchman George Claude. Today in 1955 the board game Scrabble debuts in Australia and the United Kingdom, being sold by J.W. Spear & and Sons — it had been available under various incarnations and via different manufacturers in the United States since 1938 when it was created by architect Alfred Mosher Butts. In 1948 he sold the rights to James Brunot who refined the game and called it Scrabble, a real word meaning "to grope frantically."

This bright Neon graphic Ringer T design from the Periodic Table of Elements — more Neon items here — seems like a kind of third cousin to a Scrabble tile. It can be found in the Elements section of the tidy and eclectic CafePress.com jvworldwide Online "Stuff" Store.

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