Restored Open Carbon Arc Lamp From 1889 In Operation
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- The carbon arc lamp was the very first successful artificial electric light technology and predated invention of the light bulb by several decades. This specific lamp is typical of many first generation carbon arc lamps commonly used from 1880 to 1895. The first pendent type open carbon arc lamps of this general design were introduced by Charles Brush in the late 1870's. They gained wide spread acceptance as the worlds first electric street lamps. By the late 1880's numerous manufacturers were making open arc lamps similar to the one demonstrated in this video. Many hundreds of thousands of these once ubiquitous lamps were in use urban areas all over the world in the last two decades of the 19th century.
An "open arc lamp" as demonstrated in this video is one where the electric arc is burning in open air. Open arc lamps became obsolete in the late 1890's when enclosed carbon arc lamps were introduced. The later "enclosed arc lamps" of the 1895-1910 era use a small inner glass enclosing globe to surround the arc. The enclosing globe extended the burn time of the carbon rods from 10 hours as with the lamp in this video to 90 or more hours. By excluding oxygen from the arc with an enclosing globe the operation of these lamps became much more economical.
The specific lamp in this video is what was historically known as the "Ward Arc Lamp". It was sold by the Electric Construction and Supply Company of New York from 1888 through about 1894. The specific lamp in this video sold new for $50 in 1890.
A BIG thank you goes to Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for their assistance and support in my research regarding the specific lamp in this video.
The lamp in this video is operating at 8 amps constant current pulsed DC at 55 volts using standard 1/2" diameter solid carbon rods.
Every ham radio operator in a 20 mile radius wondering what the heck just happened. 😂
😂😂😂
I don't understand
@@ItsMeChillTymeAn AC circuit switched by a spark gap like this forms the basis for Marconi Morse-code radios. They have the downside of affecting the entire spectrum instead of a single frequency, so it would be picked up as a buzz on nearby radios. However, without an antenna, this won’t be making much interference.
@@ItsMeChillTymeThis old lamp creates light via a spark gap. Spark gaps create massive noise across huge swaths of the radio spectrum, making ham radio operating in the area very difficult while this thing is powered on, because the noise will make it hard to hear desires signals. It would be like talking to people in a room and out of nowhere, someone walks into the room and starts running a leaf blower beside you. You wouldn't be able to hear anyone anymore.
Except that is a dc arc.
1889, you're trying to sleep but your neighbour purchased a new light.
Sounded like a buzz saw!
Lmao
😅
Exactly 🤣...good luck making it to work on time up stairs neighbor. Your foot stomps have annoyed me for the final time. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣....this is exactly why innow live out in the middle of nowhere. It is so quiet out here. So peaceful.
Fortunately those were more for factories.
Fascinating to think that people in the late 1800s were casually lighting their cities with similar technology what welders now use to fuse metals together.
I'll bet this is how the electric arc welder and the electric arc furnace in the steel mill was born , I went to a small steel mill to fix an air compressor and the guy there showed me the electric arc furnace but they only run it in the middle of the night because of the high demand for electricity during the day , He said that they have to contact the power company and let them know that they're gonna be starting up the furnace , He said that the power to run the furnace is equivalent to 8000 households worth of electricity used during the daytime , He also said it would melt 100 tons of steel in about 15 minutes , He also told me that an electric arc can reach temperatures of 35,000 degrees fahrenheit
Welder here, carbon electrodes are used in carbon arc *cutters* which are used to melt *away* metal, not fuse metal together. The electrode or "stick" in an arc welder is made up of "filler metal" aka steel and flux. Batteries were produced before this, if you put the positive electrode on a piece of metal that is grounded (attached to the negative terminal) *then* the two pieces of metal will create an arc, if you have the correct ratio of amps/volts it will melt the two pieces of metal together.
In my defense, I did say _similar._
@@nolanmythbustercarbon arc welding was a thing though, it was used in past before other electric welding methods. Two carbon rods with arc in between them, use heat to melt base matelas nd add filler as needed. It was similar to gas welding which has also gone largely obsolete
@@nolanmythbuster i may have invented a welding method 😂 on one contact you place a carbon rod and on the other one you put a copper electrode/filling material (i twisted three or four strands of copper together and that's the electrode).
First, you place the filling material (I'll call it a filling electrode) on the junction of two metal pieces and tap the carbon rod on it. After enough material is added, you disconnect the filling electrode and connect the terminal directly to metal piece, and touch the carbon rod on material you just added. After enough melting pieces will sorta weld together.
I think the only thing this lacks is airless medium. I think if you coat filling material in carbon and further cover that in something that can protect the copper rod against air, you can do some nice welding... just like a real electrode, lmao.
Carbon arc lamps were still used in the 1950s as film projector lamps in movie theaters. I had a friend who worked as a projectionist who showed me how to operate these fearsome lamps that were enclosed in furnace-like enclosures with stovepipes guiding the hot gas out of the building.
Before the days of safety film
This presented serious concern.
some of those old projectors are really interesting machines!
I remember a projectionist at a drive-in theater showing me the carbon arc in the projector when I was a little kid. He was very careful not to let me look directly at the arc.
In some places, such lamps are still used in lighthouses
And they lighted spools full of material that's similar to early gunpowder. Indeed terrifying!
This is both amazing and terrifying at the same time
Yes! One time, while blindly installing a light bulb in a ceiling fan touched the hot brass and it sent me tumbling off the ladder with a shock. I am pretty sure that same mistake on this device would be a bit more dramatic.
@@ericrosenburg657Not really since you can run these arc lamps on mere 12V DC since it's the current running through sustaining the arc. And since these lamps usually start with the carbons touching before pulling out an arc, you don't need any high voltage to jump an initial gap.
@@jakesteampson7043 no 12v batteries around back then. When cars finally got batteries they were 6v. These arc lamps ran on expensive propeitary generators with a custom line frequency. The electrodes were lowered and raised by a solenoid coil that also acted as a ballast. If you take one today and run it on 60hz from the wall they typically burn up. They usually ran 100v instead of 120v also.
It’s electrifying!
@@tripplefives1402 "No 12V batteries around then"
You know what two 6V batteries in series make, right?
"Honey, can get the light please?!"
Old man sighs. Begins the process...
Honeydo ftw.
I think that he would just flip a switch of some sort. Process at first was just final assembly from the looks of it
I some those carbon rods need to get replaced
My great grandfather had one in his barn. It was mostly used for family gatherings. It was literally the only light needed. lol. It had its own little house around it. To keep it safe and protected light to specific areas.
The mechanical upper section automatically adjusted the spark gap as the carbon rods vaporized. The glass enclosure greatly extended running time by reducing air flow.
I am very much glad and grateful for any persons restoring and preserving historic artefacts. I don't care with what country built or develop the artefacts. It is all very much a good help to understand the evolution and development of our kind.
Me too... there are whole communities of people dedicated to keeping all sorts of arcane historical technology alive . There is a guy who constructed an entire analog land line telephone exchange in his back yard out of old discarded telephone company hardware... Geeks are so cool!
I too love seeing very rare artefacts like this being restored , This reminds me of the TV show American Restoration where Rick can take a piece of junk and turn it into something that just came off the assembly line , I can just imagine how much money this item is worth , I always had an interest in electricity and I would love to have this item , Mostly for display but fire it up on rare occasions for my friends and family but I would make sure they wear proper eye protection and only run it for a short while , I remember watching American Restoration and Rick took an old Philco refrigerator which was absolutely a piece of junk and after he was done with it , It looked like it just came off the assembly line , Anybody who can restore artefacts like the arc lamp and other items used back in the early days is a very talented individual
Hats off to those individuals who love to restore these items as they play a huge role in American history
Back in grade school they touched base on who discovered electricity and Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb but what I'm interested in is who actually discovered generating electricity that is usable , Which is current electricity , When Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity by flying a kite during a thunderstorm , That was static electricity
@@ironmartysharpe8293 I feel a real appreciation for what you can learn from once ubiquitous yet now obscure historic technology like this in action in a dynamic way because it (in my opinion has far more to teach the observer then just a static display of something Ultimately no one truly owns historic artifacts of this nature. we are just stewards of them when they are in our hands. In reality, they also belong to future generations as well and if we care for them in our lifetimes they will be available for future generations to learn from and experience. Nothing beats riding on a 100 year old steam train or antique trolley street car to get a feel for a historic time and place. Of coarse, none of us can single-handedly restore one of these to safely operate but the idea is the same. There are inherent dangers in early technology like this be them exposure to asbestos (many arc lamps are loaded with the stuff) to dangerous and potentially lethal electrical voltages to the UV light these things made. There is a reason arc lamp trimmers died by the hundreds historically.
I agree wholeheartedly. Compared to human history, these devices were used for an extremely short time. As a modern example, there will NEVER EVER be another generation of humans who uses VHS. After it fades away, that's it.
It's so complex and specifically made that there's no chance anybody would ever make and use them again. Even accidentally thousands of years after our society has gone.
And without documentation and restoration like this, such devices could easily be lost to history after a few short generations.
@@electricalhistorynerd All sorts of geekery are fun.
Thank you for allowing me to see this technology in action. I love seeing the past come to life with functioning antique technology and this is one you don't see very often, if ever. Great job!
Glad you enjoyed it! I could not find another video of one of these important historic pieces of early electrical technology in operation anyplace on the internet so this video was created to fill the gap. :-)
Driving to work and you think to yourself " did i remember to turn off the open carbon arc lamp at home "?
@@venomr6rider and suddenly two firetrucks pass you in the opposite direction, sirens screaming, lights flashing...
in 1889 cars didn't even EXIST ... you "drove" Horses
@@adp5R3x fair point hahaha
Arc spotlights left over from WWII were common up through the early 70’s as advertising gimmicks. Movie theaters, store openings, carnivals used them. The intense bluish light beams were awesome to see. And hear, if you got close enough.
Pretty common at car dealerships during sales events back in the day. Interesting comment, I wonder why they don't do that anymore.
My dad operated one of those monsters for the army post Korea when the army decided they didn’t need as many mortar men .
@marklynch8781 perhaps because they consume a lot of electricity and require constant adjustments too. If you can find one, it is likely close to becoming an antique. UV radiation hazard as well. They were state-of-the-art technology when they were first made, though.
@SSJindy
My father had a close friend who had a business with two mobil units that each had their own diesel generator. Each lamp head had a fan to cool it . The arc inside, was contained and created in argon gas.
Each one had three lamps. That was six beams of light that could travel around automatically in predetermined arc"s of blinding light. Reflecting off the bottoms of the clouds.
My father. A mechanical fabricator.
Would take me in tow to Dale's shop sometimes, when he would repair these maintenance heavy units. And always enjoyed watching them operate at Grand Openings, Carlot midnight sales event's. The County Fair and the like.
Father's friend. Was from Ruskin Fl.
I was but a young man then. 70yr. Now and still growing . To help time line my share.
If any of Dale's family sees this. Please share what an interesting person your Grandfather was.
Memories...time waits. For no man.
Some of those WWII searchlights are still being used for this. I talked to a guy a few years who had a business with these things. He said everything about them was WWII vintage, and spare parts were getting scarce. Very little, if anything, was still being manufactured for them.
Nothing like lighting and welding at the same time.
I'm a welder by trade and this is a little scary. What an amazing piece of history!
Me getting sunburns just from watching videos of this lamp.
What kind of radiation does this put off?
@@Al_Gore_Rhythmn All
@@Al_Gore_Rhythmn it emits quite a good amount of UV radiation as it's pretty much the same as the welding.
@@Al_Gore_Rhythmnyes
@@Al_Gore_Rhythmn all of it 😅
I love this dudes appearance too. He's absolutely the kind of guy I can see playing around with old lights from the 1880s to show that they're interesting. ❤
Yep both interesting and Why they are no longer around in quantity .
Who needs light bulbs when you can just light your house with an arch welder.
arc
What about the UV exposure?
I use arc btw
@@2timothy477 I guess that is what he glass dome is for... But they used to run these with no protection against the UV other then using sunglasses (that is why the movie stars used sunglasses so often in the beginning of motion film)
@@a64738 The glass only blocks the shortest wavelengths aka UVB and UVC.
Long-wave UV or UVA gets through unimpeded, hence the sunglasses I guess.
This is amazing. Imagine what people felt like for the first time as devices like this lit up streets and stores for the first time. About the same time, Motzart started to be played for all to be amazed in the streets of Europe. Again, first time anyone heard such beautiful music.
I’m reminded of an old arc lamp I found in an antique shop in North Dakota many years ago. I purchased it for an well known insulator and street light collector that lived in the Boston area, but I have not been in touch with him in ages.
I know the person you speak of in Boston I am also into antique insulators... It's a small world! I am curious what type of lamp you have ? have you been able to restore it to operate?
Mother to children: Kids! It's getting dark outside.
Children: AWWW MOM!
Mother to children: Put on your sunglasses cause your dad's turning on the light.
I wear my sunglasses at night so i can so i can
😂😂😂
*welding masks
I absolutely love old electromechanical tech, and am so glad you suddenly appeared in my youtube feed. Thank you for this captivating video!!!
That is awesome! Keep doin bro. I've always admired what our ( electrician ) forefathers put their blood, sweat & tears into. I'm a IBEW electrician in Los Angeles. I'll tell ya, those guys built this city with a lot of pride in their work. I've collected a few items of historic electrical items...
Thanks for showing this content. Showing how it works by making it work.
at 440w that is slightly less efficient than an LED bulb
But more efficient than burning objects for light!
Less messy.
@@badreality2 its literally burning carbon
@@tripplefives1402 Bro, you know I am referring to what else was burned in the era for lighting, oil... gas... wood... wax... etc.
@@badreality2 dont worry, they had a steam generator outside burning that stuff.
@@tripplefives1402 ... Still cleaner than wiping oil vapor from walls, ash from wood, dealing with melted wax, etc.
In power plants fires burn long and hot, like incinerators, where everything burns.
No need to clean, when the ash itself burns away.
Dr. Frankenstein, your reading light is ready.
This was awesome to watch. I love seeing older technology in action.
I have a whole box of carbon arcs my father-in-law gave me but they were used in printing. It's neat to see them used.
I used carbon arcs on a HPL Little John process camera until the early 90’s. Sometimes you had to poke them with a stick to get them to strike.
I'm in show biz, I've operated carbon arc spotlights before. Ingenuity. Very hot, very bright, just don't let your stick get moist or it's lights out!
That's a deal breaker for me. I love getting my stick moist, and I don't like doing it in total darkness...
Heh heh giggity
That glass is really taking one for the team.
Hearing the glass resonate with the arc is pretty cool.
What a beautiful old work of art
I remember operating one of these for my high school theatre back in the 1880’s…glad to see them still around.
*"Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave, with a box of scraps".*
Hahahaha 😂🤣
Was supposed to be funny but ain't. Because arc lamps aren't complex.
Marvel soyboys
@@NepetaLeijon lol I've never been told I wasn't masculine before. Hahahaha.
It's possible with the right scraps. Piece of iron and insulated wire coiled around it makes a fine ac transformer to get high voltage. Or a discarded microwave. I'm sure there had to be a microwave in that cave. You can get thousands of watts from a microwave transformer if you rewrap the coils.
Carbon rods can be obtained from those large flashlight batteries. And that's basically the hard stuff done.
There's more to it, obviously, but it's not that hard to build. It is hard to build one safely, though. That's the trick. Not killing yourself.
Heck, soldiers in POW camps used to build AM radios called foxhole radios out of little more than some coiled wire, a pencil and a razor blade for the receiver. And another Coil, a nail and tin can for a speaker.
It sounds nuts but it works. And doesn't even need a battery. It requires so little power, just the radio waves are enough to run it. Since there is usable power in radio waves. Just not very much.
You can make a dead simple radio receiver out of 2 specifically sized strips of wire soldered on each leg of an LED. At around 10cm (3in) or so, the wire acts as an antenna that picks up 2.4ghz signals. Which is what most wifi uses.
So, it lights up if you have it near wifi. Even though there are no batteries. An LED can light up from very little power.
Anyway, you can try some of this stuff if you want or look it up or just ignore it. I just wanted to share some examples of how SOME but not all electronics are actually very easy and straight forward.
At least, on the surface. There are entire books just about how an LED works. So, it can be quite a rabbit hole. But to just make things work CAN be dead simple sometimes.
That's the single, most dangerous "lightbulb" I've ever seen.
Check out the Yablokhov Candle.
And that's why the actual lightbulb was invented.
Wonder what the room smells like an hour after that things been running
That's what I came to say, that is generating a LOT of ozone
and don't forget the UV burns, but the glass diffuser of the lamp would block a fair portion of it
Just think about the headaches those things caused… the noise, intense light and the ozone… perfect recipe for migraines.
Ozone
Burnt Hair if you get to close .
I've worked on an incredible variety of machines and still have my fascination for them. Thank you so much.
They used that type of lamp in centeral park..they were placed along the sidewalks about 15 feet to the sides incase glass cracked to pieces or carbon rods blew apart. A fairly steady light definitely a huming sound of the many running..they had to be serviced often
Will that burn your eyes like welding flash?
It's probably fine as long as you keep the glass around it. Otherwise it is problematic If you don't. Oh and probably don't stare at it.
Most standard glass will block the UV portion. So generally the thing that makes you feel like you got sand in your eyes is caused by the UV.
But the IR portion of this might be problematic. I know powerful IR can be bad, but I don't remember a ton about it. Somebody else will have to chime in on the IR portion of this hazard. UV is a far more common safety concern for me to deal with and think about.(IR not so much)
The light from these antique lamps emanates from a plasma and the glowing tips of the carbon rods... The core of the arc itself is literally as hot as the surface of the sun. They make allot of UV much like a welding arc so you should never look directly at them. " The high resistance as the current struggles to jump the gap betwien the carbon rods sparks the bright light, and creates intense heat of up to 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit (3,315 degrees Celsius). depending on current and conditions the temperature of the arc can exceed the temperature of the surface of the sun. Kinda amazing to think that in 1880's people were lighting city streets with a ball of plasma hotter then the sun.
It sure will. I remember using one of these in my high school print shop. We used it for UV exposing silk screens and offset lithography plates. It also makes a bit of ozone and probably nitric oxides.
It produces a lot of UV radiation that would give you sunburns or damages your eyes, depending on exposure.
Isn't that what the glass surround is there for, to attenuate UV? Otherwise everything nearby would get bleached, especially film in a projector, which I guess also required IR also filtering. Dichroic I guess. Let's see if RUclips censors this comment.
It was still quite good for street lighting back then because of its brightness and I believe even moonlight towers used them originally. Pretty much moonlight towers were a form of street lighting where the lights were all on large towers instead of there being a lot more lights in the streets! :)
moonlight towers used a mercury based lighting system
@@charleszgela7339
That was actually introduced later as the first moonlight towers were built in the late 19th century before mercury vapour bulbs were inverted. They switched to using mercury vapour bulbs in the 1930s and most recently switched to LEDs for the moonlight towers still in operation. They did however briefly use inconsistent bulbs for a few years in the 1920s before they switched to the Mercury vapour bulbs.
Some kind of mercury vapor lamps but huge
Moonlight towers were so cool! I have seen the ones in Austin, Tx. They long ago had carbon arc lamps ... I believe the one that once stood in the Bay Area of California had open arcs like this... imagine having to climb the tower every day to change the carbons!
@@electricalhistorynerd
Yup they did in fact have to do that and manually light the lamps every day while Austin is one of the last places in the world that still has moonlight towers thanks to the local residents advocating for the city to keep them! :)
I really appreciate the comment about imaging how someone must have felt when before the brightest human made light they’d seen was a candle. It’s easy to judge from the here and now and forget the shoulders we stand on.
I was recently explaining to someone how sometimes have to remind myself that before the Beatles music was just bubblegum crap like “Its My Party (I’ll Cry if I Want to)” to recapture how mind blowing Sgt Pepper’s or The White Album must have been to hear through an amazing pair of headphones.
Always wondered how safe were electrical devices back then, whenever i see tech from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s I’m wondering “how does it work and will it kill me from just being switched on”
Not very safe. The job of arc lamp trimmer was on part with power lineman and explosives handler as far as dangerous jobs of the era!
@@electricalhistorynerd Oof poor guys.
One of the very few times vertical video makes sense and practical! 😊
That is freakin cool. Having done carbon arc welding, this is a type of light I would love to own!
What a delightful noise it makes
Plasma in arc mode. Awesome! This, the spark, has negative resistance, meaning the more current you supply to it, the less its resistance becomes. That is why they are trying to do fusion with it.
This plasma gets carbon atoms evaporated slowly from the carbon electrodes, and its light becomes very brilliant. I once had a plasma in arc mode light up at the physics lab at 200 amps, and my supervisor went and hid behind the door. It surprised us as we we test driving it with how much of a light that thing produced. I was supplying clean DC to it, so it was totally silent. You can use a normal welder power supply for lighting up bright arc mode plasmas. You could use a fluorescent light bulb's power supply for less amps. Both power supplies mentioned are designed to work with sparks and negative resistance. Both power supplies will drive your lamp silently, the latter being autostart capable as well (you don't have to touch the sticks first).
I used a simple resistance ballast and a bridge rectifier running on normal 120VAC to operate the lamp to simulate what would have been done historically. I am sure it would be very quiet on clean DC but for the sake of the demo I did it old school. Historically a DC dynamo would have been used and the pulse frequency would have depended on the speed of the machine. they made both DC and AC versions of these lamps with the only real difference being the actuator rod on the lifting mechanism magnet was laminated rod for AC or or a solid rod for DC. This is pretty much what an AC lamp of that era would sound like. There was single phase AC available in that era. Most DC and some AC lamps intended to run on multiple circuits used a simple wire wound resistor as a ballast. Series lamps were another story and had more complex differential carbon feed mechanisms such as lamps powered by a Brush constant current dynamo. After about 1904~ they started using early oil cooled versions of the Cooper-Hewett mercury arc tube for generating DC on high voltage series arc lighting circuits and I am sure those had an AC buzz as well.
@@electricalhistorynerd Wow, what an incredible answer. Thank goodness nowadays we have the luxury of stable DC and they don't hum (Xenon, HPS, ...). I am using a hot arc plasma in vacuum for material processing and it is mesmerising to watch, wearing glasses of course, as it lights up the whole lab.
@@BillDemos It's really interesting to view the arc stream on one of these things through a set of welding goggles for sure ... especially on a series enclosed arc lamp as the gap is constantly shifting as the lamp adjusts to current and voltage fluctuations on a series string. Also If you have a chance, research the Brush Constant Current Dynamo and the engineering behind one. They were an amazing piece of sophisticated engineering for having been invented in the late 1870's. The things could make DC power at a steady amperage with a floating voltage that compensated for the number of lamps in a series string. www.lafavre.us/brush/dynamo.htm
@@electricalhistorynerd Thanks, what a nice article. For my designs, I never use a commutator, these are all pseudo-DC motors, meaning they don't really produce DC, even the "modern" BDLC ones. To go to the next level, you have to think of your motor/generator designs in terms of the Faraday motor. Its original concept is a "single turn" motor, but you can extend it to having multiple turns so you don't need low voltage high amperage as its input.
Just about every other type of light is negative resistance other than bulbs and LED, that's what ballast is for.
I remember my mum had an old carbon arc sunlamp in the 70's.
A deathtrap which is also a radio jammer which is also a light source. Highly innovative
It was for a period of time a legit radio device: The Poulsen arc transmitter.
@@organfairyExactly. That was my grandfather's work as a wireless radio telegrapher. Ship to shore radio was using this Poulsen arc radio technology in the Pacific, while eastern telegraph messages were still carried and limited by the transatlantic cable.
That's amazingly beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
Excellent video Guy
Thanks for sharing this!
Arc Lamps were what lit the city of Wabash, Indiana, making that city the first electrically lit city in the world, or maybe the country
The guy doing this looks exactly how I imagined a guy doing this would look
I'm glad we found ways to make light sound less angry in the intervening years 😂
This is a fascinating piece of history.
Ever had a sunburn on your eyes from an arc welder? I have, it’s like fine sand in your eyes. Looking directly at this lamp.
So that's why my grandma never left a light on anywhere even outside. Back then it took more power to run a lightbulb than Doc Brown's delorian from Back To the Future. ONE POINT TWENTY ONE GIGAWATS! GREAT SCOTT!
How old are you?
Grandma didn't because she knew about Economy
@@jmbkpo I know I know. She wasn't even born yet and the real reason was because she grew up during the great depression and didn't waste anything.
@@kmoecub old enough to know better but still to young to care.
@@kmoecubdon't have to be too old. I'm in my early 40ies, and my grandma was born in 1935 and got her fair share of ancient tech. Not to speak of my greatgrandma. People used to procreate much earlier back then.
IATSE Union stage hand, ran carbon arc spotlights and projectors for so many years, it got to an art near the end. Miss the beautiful blue hue for Broadway shows
Exactly the same way a searchlight operates , A diesel or gas powered generator to provide power to the light itself and the motor to rotate the light
Two carbon electrodes coming together to create an arc and an automatic feed for the electrodes to maintain the arc , I was always wondering why a searchlight was so intense until I saw one up close at a shopping center used for the grand opening , I talked to the operator and he said it's an electric arc between two carbon electrodes , He said very important is never look into the light because it will blind you instantly unless you're wearing a welding helmet but even with the welding helmet , you can only look at it for a second or two , The generator put out around 230 amps for the arc , The rest for the motor to rotate the light
This is the exact same way an electric arc furnace works in a steel mill
One time I saw an electric arc furnace up close but wasn't in operation because they operate it during the night but the guy at the steel mill said that an electric arc can reach a temperature of 35,000 degrees fahrenheit , No wonder why the light and heat it produces is so very intense
The guy at the steel mill also told me that the furnace can melt 100 tons of steel in about 15 minutes
You can just imagine how hazardous it was having an electric arc lamp in your home , because of how easily the intense light can blind you and the very intense heat it produces , I'll bet this lamp could heat the room toasty warm In the winter and I'll also bet it would heat up a garage as well because of the very intense heat the arc produces
Im wondering how many amps this arc lamp draws and what the voltage is at the electrodes , Another thing I'm surprised about is that the glass was able to withstand the heat from the arc which gets me wondering when was Pyrex glass invented , One more thing ,
I would be wearing a welding helmet before striking an arc to protect my vision as I adjust it to maintain the arc
Very few people even had electricity in their homes in this era. Most electrified homes only had a few carbon filament light bulbs in that era and would not have had carbon arc lamps . The cost of one of these lamps new ($50 in 1892) was far out of most people's price range. Only the very wealthy could afford them. They were usually reserved for street lighting and commercial/ industrial applications. Early open arcs typically operate between 7 and 18 amps @ around 35-60 volts. Later Enclosed arc lamps ran closer to 80 volts and from 4 to 6.6 amps.
@@electricalhistorynerd WOW , 50 bucks for a carbon filament lamp , I knew they were expensive but I didn't know they were that expensive and just like you said , Only the wealthy could afford them and of course
Electricity was a luxury and I can imagine how much it cost back in those days
Seeing that a carbon filament lamp costs 50
Bucks , I'm wondering how long the carbon filament lamp would last and of course
Light bulbs had to be made by hand
I remember watching an article on History Channel about the war between Thomas Edison Vs Nicola Tesla and George Westinghouse and at the world's fair in Chicago , 100,000 light bulbs were used to light up the fair , I can imagine how many people it took and how long it took to make 100,000 light bulbs for the world's fair
And all had to be made by hand
Another thing I'm interested in is who actually figured out how to generate electricity that's usable , I don't know if it was Thomas Edison , Nicola Tesla or George Westinghouse
You can actually see the little arc in the lens flare, something like seeing it through welding glass.
It is the little green point moving, the reflections between camera lenses
BEAUTIFUL!
Beautiful love it
Worked 40 years in electrical construction collected many an old electrical component all throughout NYC
My house caught on fire just because I watched this video
LOL!
Carbon Arc lamps where still used in plate making for printing even in the late 90s when I worked in printing, and there might sill be some being used today.
They indeed were. I think you could still order carbon rods from blueprint materials suppliers in relatively modern times.
I used to do offset printing too and a carbon arc exposure unit was what I started out with till we got an upgrade to lamp. I can relate to the process of getting the gap just right.
10 years ago I maintained single and triple Atlas carbon arc lamps in a materials testing lab. Japanese auto manufacturers still required the testing for light fade durability. I wonder if the lab still uses them?
When I was 15, I applied for a job as a projectionist at a theater in Sydney Australia. The projectors were all lit with carbon arc light to view the movies.
Right,Dad said he ran one also, and if you didn't keep them adjusted in it would get to Hot and melt the tape. Cool shit
The old drive-in theater in my hometown used arc lamps until they closed in the early eighties. It pushed a nice bright image up onto the screen. The camera house looked like it was on fire as it flickered and had smoke coming out of the top. I visited the room a few times to chat with the projector maintainer. The room was hot, like unbearably hot. It said Arc something on the side of the projector. I have a few of the lenses from the machine after they scrapped it.
What did someone back then do when they saw this for the first time? Obviously, they would have soiled themselves. That loud, crisp buzzing is eerie. With that blinding light, they might have felt it was Satan's lamp. It's no wonder there was a race to find a suitable replacement for residential use because this wasn't it. I'm not saying it isn't cool because I love this early electric technology partly because of the morbid side of it. Naked toasters, ungrounded anything, and bare electric wires strung on insulators along the ceiling. Not to mention, people thought there were health effects to shocking themselves.
There are stories of people believing electricity leaked out of open lamp sockets and that it could crawl down poles and attack you in those days. I am sure some thought it was Satin's lamp. Of coarse people today believe Bill Gates wants to inject them with microchips and all sorts of other reactive fear based anti science nonsense. I am not sure people have evolved that much in the last 150 years. These things were mostly used as outdoor lamps and few if any people could afford the $50.00 price tag for one in 1889.... More or less afford the then cutting edge industrial machinery needed to generate the power to operate them.
Thank you for showing us a piece of history.
Person 1: I LOVE YOUR NEW LIGHTING SYSTEM!
Person 2: WHAT?!
Person 1: HUH- oh, hey, it went out...
Person 1 the next day: Hey it’s really nice have daytime at night, but why do you look like you have been tanning on the surface of the sun? And why does it feel like my eyes are filled with invisible sand?!
well thank you RUclips algorithm! i now found another rabbit hole to fall into!
You can really fins some interesting threads related to forgotten antique electrical technology!
Never seen a lamp like that before
That makes sense. Most of these lamps that survived past the year 1905 became scrap during the first and second world wars... so they are pretty unusual today. Unless you were alive in the 1880's and 1890's when these were commonplace , chances are you will never see one except in an old historic photo from that era.
@@electricalhistorynerd for a while snake oil salesmen were selling low quality carbon arc lamps as health lamps in the 1920s, its a more acessible option for old light collectors.
The arc lights from preWW1 are hoarded by collectors and rarely for sale to young whipper snappers.
Excellent and thanks for showing us. A great thing to restore and operate.
Yeah, to see this back then must've been quite something
Never seen one of those in my life until this video that is cool😮
Ok that is pretty darn cool.thanks for posting.
Me: "today, I will learn something new, productive and efficient".
Also me: starts the week by watching an ancient devil's horn catching fire 🤷♂️
i think a candle will do the job just fine
Phew, candles! Too modern, splinter lamps are the way
Thank you for your successful attempt to make the history alive😮
Where were lamps like this used? Do the rods have to be replaced over time?
Yes they wear shorter over time and need to be adjusted after a while to keep the gap normal and teplaced when the rods were too small. Places that worked 24/7 like port warehouses or trains yard/station was common
They were used in some British ironclads(late 1800 battleships) surprisingly. Better than lamplight, but were later replaced by filament bulbs.
in the late 1800's carbon arc lamps were typically used where you needed a very bright light street lamps, commercial and industrial establishments, military spot and signal lights, railroad engine headlamps, theaters, etc. Their first real industrial use was in lighthouses in the 1870's as they were vastly brighter then flame lamp sources.
I know a few people who specialize in restoring old ships arc lamps as you describe :-)
There were trained people that did nothing but replace carbons all day everyday.
Why does the light bring tears of hope and splendor to my soul...
More antiquitech, please.
Because you, you light up my life...
this is so old that my grand grand grand grand grandpa call(ed) it obsolete... like a smartphone of the last year
This technology was used on a large scale during World War 2, in air raid searchlights throughout England. These searchlights were also used for movie premieres prior to World War 2. The carbon arc lights were some of the brightest lights of their time.
Can’t get a purer white light than a carbon arc
What about metal halide ?
Or halogen ?
Makes me think of the opening of each episode of Connections.
⚠️I guess that you don’t feel that it might not only be a fire hazard, but also a health hazard due to toxic gases being produced.
What toxic gasses? Probably makes only CO2.
@@2OO_OK Traces of ozone perhaps, but definitely CO2.
Nitrogen oxides as well. Not to mention the UV exposure which can cause sunburn and skin cancer
@@2OO_OK carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides.
Makes me think of the first season of James Burke's show "Connections"
Guessing this is the same principle as carbon arc illumination in cinema projectors right up to the 80s...
Correct.
Good guess.
Absolutely love fringe technology, especially transitional. I can smell the ozone through my cell-phone.
And yet incandescent bulbs are illegal, but this thing is totally fine.
You go out and buy one then
They are not illegal you silly goose
@GaiusCaligula234 in the United States they are illegal to manufacture and sell.
@@yeahrightbear8883 No, they are not. Read the bill
The ban is actually pretty weak. Specialty incandescent light bulbs can still be sold like appliance bulbs and heat lamps. You won't find your general lamp bulbs, anymore. Ironically, you can still get incandescent black light bulbs, and there's hardly any UV in those. That has to be the most inefficient incandescent bulb you can buy.
And this is how my uncle use to work at movie theater, he have to operate 2 projectors and this was the light source.
Now THIS is AWESOME ❤
I did not know we had light back in the 1880s
I know we had " Moon Lights "
On huge towers in some cities that provided a small amount of light at night, but nothing like this.
It would be incredible to have light in your house in the 1880s
Who knew that lights could be obnoxiously loud lol. Seriously though, it's crazy seeing one of these old lamps actually working.
I remember operating an Arc follow-spotlight at my high school as part of the stage crew back in the 1980's
This is what my old doorbell sounds like. Should I call an electrician? 😂
Wowzers! Almost feel like you need to recite an incantation!!! Must have truly seemed magical in it's heyday.
This reminds me of the old movie projector’s light system. I remember a vent stack and the carbon rods being removed and replaced with pliers .
As a projectionist who has run carbob arcs, this thing being run unventilated horrifies me.
Крутая лампочка!Все соседи без ТВ,радио и наверное интернета остались))
How many times have I told you kids to never look directly at the lamp? You’ll burn your eyes out like Jimmy down the road
I'm so glad this popped up for me. I'm interested in restoring one of Philadelphia's original arc lamps.
I used to operate a live theater spotlight similar to this. They're hot as hell and can cause serious burns.
So cool. Would love to see the reaction from the public when these came out
Danger, Will Robinson!!! 😱
Boss: can you install a pendant light really quick on your way home?
The job: