Neon

Neon ("Ne")is a colorless gas, but because it's atomic number is 10, it's first two electron shells (which want to have 2 and 8 electrons respectively) are completly full, meaning similar to helium(and all the "noble gases", He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe)it is very VERY non-reactive.

It's similar to Helium in many ways, it's non-reactive, it's present in the air at a tiny percentage and that's where they purify it from, however it isn't as light as helium so you can't fill balloons with it or make your voice go all funny by breathing it.

One of neon's most famous uses is in the gas discharge lamp, which is a lamp in which light is produced by putting high-voltage electricity through low-pressure gas, and neon is used most popularly because it is generally the brightest gas you can use. Gas discharge lamps come in many shapes and sizes, one you might be familiar with is a long glass tube with an electrode at either end shaped like letters or words, known as neon signs(however neon is always a red-orange color, any other color is made by a different gas mixture).

Something I do besides collect atomic elements is collect interesting lightbulbs, so most likely this page will have lots of samples far more unusual than the element in them.

These are my samples!