The dot com sign
The dot com sign was originally part of the WorldbyNet.com sign which was owned by WorldByNet, a now defunct dot com where I used to work from 1999 to 2001. The sign was installed at the top of the 5 story building at 710 N. Post Oak Road in Houston, Texas. This was a great location because the sign could be seen by the tens of thousands of drivers who passed by the builing on I-10 and the 610 loop each day.



The sign in its original location

After WorldByNet ran out of money in early 2001, the sign was removed from the building and stored in the building's parking garage basement storage area. At that point I realized it would be really great to get my hands on the dot com, because it would be a great novelty and symbol of the Internet bubble. The sign remined in the basement for over 2 years until the building's maintenance man was asked to clean out the basement. I knew the maintenaince man well, so I asked him if I could have the sign. He told me to come and get it, so in September 2003 I picked up dot com and left the other parts behind because I didn't want them or have that much spare room.

The letters of the sign are what the sign industry calls channel letters, because they are crafted from sheetmetal aluminum that is formed by hand in to channels. The fronts of the letters are made from thin, colored plexiglass with a vinyl border. Inside, the letters are pained white and use white neon for illumination.

The sign was originally installed by professional sign electricians and when I took possesion of it, I had no idea if I'd be able to put it together or if the thing would even light up. Although the letters were intact, there were wires hanging from each piece and there was also an aassortment of 5000 and 15000 volt electrical transformers. I had a basic understanding of electricity and the principals of neon lighting, but had never worked with real neon before. I certainly didn't want to electrocute myself with a 15kV transformer.

I knew that the sign's high voltage wiring, known in the industry as GTO, would have to be replaced because it had all been cut when the sign was removed from the building. I called a few local neon shops and asked them about buying GTO and firing up the sign to see if it worked. One place advised me to use standard 120 volt wiring to run the sign to see if it worked in order to prove that the neon tubes were intact. If it worked, then I could buy GTO and wire the sign properly.



In my garage during the test lighting with temporary wiring

So that's what I did. I used standard wire and connected the letters together with the transformer and powered it up. Amazingly, it worked! As soon as possible, I bought real GTO and rewired the sign with proper wiring and built a wood frame to mount the sign on. I hung the whole thing in the garage and wired it so the sign would come on when the garage door opened.

That was fun for a while and I figured that the sign would spend the rest of its life there in the garage. The company I work for signed a lease for a new office space, and it occured to me that the sign would look great in the new office. The problem was that the wooden frame I had mounted the sign on wouldn't look good hanging in an office, so I had to build a new backing for the sign.

Using plywood that I had sitting around and moulding that was removed from our dining room when we remodeled it, I created a new backing for the sign. The finished package was on the heavy side, so I designed it so that the transformer, which is also very heavy, sits on the floor out of sight. The sign hangs from two 1/8 inch steel cables, and two lengths of white GTO connect the sign to the transformer.



Hanging in garage with new backing



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