for Vynil33rpm at least...neon tubing standoffs and how they're used

I fully admit I really didn't think that Vynil33rpm (nor lots of other folks here) really *would not* know the answer to the kinda 'challenge question' I commented about yesterday, which Vynil then ever so kindly added another posting showing them closer up.

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/280436-no-colorful-tubular-glow-without-these?in=activity#

SO, for any of y'all that might still remain curious, here's a few pics of these things actually 'doing their job' inside my own personal favorite 'big neon sign' glowing happily on the wall behind me right now. :-)

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/241317-fun-with-red-neon-channel-letters

On most any sort of actual neon sign (not modern LED anything btw) whether meant for inside or outside duty (little beer signs too, or anything with real "luminous tubing" in it...) and with or without 'exposed tubing' (unlike mine here) some variety of these 'standoffs' are used to hold the fragile glass neon tubing itself, which (as can be seen) is simply attached to them by little short twisty wires to hold them in place. The ultimate reason behind it is the fact that it takes (again, in general terms) something on the order of 5-10 times (at least) the actual voltage that comes out of everybody's common wall outlets (even outside of the USA where lots of folks' stuff runs on 240v vs. our typical 120v here) to make the actual neon tubes light up.

That's the kinda voltage folks, which is *entirely* capable of throwing your body across a room (if not thru a wall as well) if you got your fingers across the exactly *wrong* little bit of any odd electrical connection in there...IF you'd be lucky enough that it also didn't kill you kinda immediately in the process...big electrical jolts have their own tendency to "stop hearts from beating" if they aren't used in a hospital to try to otherwise "restart" a heart that quit on its own for some other reason. (like for instance, if you touched that perfectly wrong place in there...) And ANYWAYS, some various sorts of these standoffs are used to hold the tubing/wiring a safe-ish distance away from other metal parts of whatever kinda sign it is, to minimize the chance that any of that very high voltage might ever wanna try to find its way otherwise to anything else *but* the neon tubes.

I pulled the outer cover off my 'M' for these pics. There ain't a lot of room inside there to get better pics of how the standoffs exist, but I hope y'all get the idea anyways. Any of y'all that *do* have any sort of neon sign of your own are no doubt familiar with 'em anyway. ;-)

[and yes, I do also have a few coffee cans/little boxes full of them around here someplace...again, are any of you *really* surprised at that...?? <ROTFLMAO>