 Since the 1950s, the development of phosphors for color televisions has created nearly 100 new colors for neon tube lighting.Around 1917, Daniel McFarlan Moore, then working at the General Electric Company, developed the miniature neon lamp.The glow lamp has a very different design than the much larger neon tubes used for signage; the difference was sufficient that a separate US patent was issued for the lamp in 1919.