WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:01.875 In just the last video, 00:00:01.875 --> 00:00:06.220 we took a look at these hurricane lanterns, their history, and how they work. 00:00:06.220 --> 00:00:08.729 If you haven’t seen that, I’d recommend watching it first 00:00:08.729 --> 00:00:11.340 because this video will be building upon it. 00:00:11.340 --> 00:00:15.220 Oh, uh, real quick — someone asked for a simulated hurricane. 00:00:15.802 --> 00:00:18.492 I can’t quite do that but here’s a leaf blower! 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:21.893 [whooshing of blower] 00:00:23.195 --> 00:00:24.765 Pretty impressive. 00:00:24.765 --> 00:00:28.639 Anyway, flat wick kerosene lamps and lanterns were ubiquitous, 00:00:28.639 --> 00:00:31.911 every-day sources of lighting outside of cities for decades, 00:00:31.911 --> 00:00:36.856 and unfortunately remain so across wide swaths of the developing world. 00:00:36.856 --> 00:00:42.621 While burning a fuel to create light is certainly not the best way to do it for a plethora of reasons, 00:00:42.621 --> 00:00:47.867 a development of the late 19th century made the process a whole lot more useful. 00:00:47.867 --> 00:00:52.660 This kerosene lamp is much brighter than any of the others we’ve seen so far, 00:00:52.660 --> 00:00:53.946 burns cleanly, 00:00:53.946 --> 00:00:55.707 and is green. 00:00:56.427 --> 00:01:00.578 And the technology that makes it so bright is what we’ll be talking about today. 00:01:00.578 --> 00:01:05.689 But first, we need to step back from lanterns and talk about the towngas industry. 00:01:05.689 --> 00:01:10.200 Someone, and I don’t remember who so I’m sorry I can’t thank you personally, 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.045 recommended this book to me. 00:01:12.045 --> 00:01:16.506 Disenchanted Night, The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century. 00:01:16.506 --> 00:01:21.425 It’s a fascinating read and focuses mainly on the development of centralized lighting systems, 00:01:21.425 --> 00:01:23.547 both gas and electric. 00:01:23.547 --> 00:01:28.566 I had mentioned coal gas in the last video and a number of you wondered what that was, 00:01:28.566 --> 00:01:30.389 so here’s what that was. 00:01:30.389 --> 00:01:33.218 Also we need to talk about it anyway. 00:01:33.218 --> 00:01:35.590 Before the natural gas we know today, 00:01:35.590 --> 00:01:39.192 gas that was delivered to the home was manufactured from coal, 00:01:39.192 --> 00:01:41.258 and less commonly wood. 00:01:41.258 --> 00:01:46.163 It took me until last week to realize that’s why we call it natural gas. 00:01:46.163 --> 00:01:49.410 Its predecessors literally were not natural! 00:01:49.410 --> 00:01:55.093 Anyway, coal can actually be processed into a number of different products much like petroleum, 00:01:55.093 --> 00:02:00.278 and it was known since the late 17th century that if you distill coal in a retort 00:02:00.278 --> 00:02:05.105 — that’s one of these mad scientist chemistry set things, not just a devastating comeback — 00:02:05.105 --> 00:02:08.561 one of the byproducts was an inflammable spirit. 00:02:08.561 --> 00:02:12.740 I’m going to quote from the first known written discovery of this phenomenon, 00:02:12.740 --> 00:02:17.109 written in a letter to Robert Boyle by amateur chemist John Clayton. 00:02:17.109 --> 00:02:19.154 This was in 1691. 00:02:19.154 --> 00:02:24.189 [soft jazz begins playing] I got some coal, and distilled it in a retort in an open fire. 00:02:24.189 --> 00:02:26.603 At first there came over only phlegm, 00:02:26.603 --> 00:02:30.474 afterwards a black oil, and then likewise a spirit arose, 00:02:30.474 --> 00:02:32.596 which I could no ways condense; 00:02:32.596 --> 00:02:36.325 but it forced my lute, or broke my glasses. 00:02:36.547 --> 00:02:41.195 Side note: I have no clue what “forced my lute” is supposed to mean. 00:02:41.530 --> 00:02:46.174 I also don’t know if the “or broke my glasses” might be clarification 00:02:46.174 --> 00:02:48.560 done by Schivelbusch, the author of the book. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:54.640 I googled the phrase “forced my lute” and the only results were of this exact letter, 00:02:54.640 --> 00:02:57.120 many of them being quoted from this very book. 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:01.866 I’m choosing to interpret it as one would “grinds my gears” or “ruffles my feathers” 00:03:01.866 --> 00:03:03.060 because that’s fun! 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:06.810 It’s probably wrong, but anyway, to continue… 00:03:06.810 --> 00:03:11.531 Once, when it had forced my lute, coming close thereto in order to try to repair it, 00:03:11.531 --> 00:03:16.162 I observed that the spirit which issued out caught fire at the flame of the candle, 00:03:16.162 --> 00:03:20.221 and continued burning with violence as it issued out in a stream, 00:03:20.221 --> 00:03:24.441 which I blew out and lighted again alternately for several times. 00:03:24.940 --> 00:03:28.354 I then had a mind to try if I could save any of this spirit; 00:03:28.354 --> 00:03:31.394 in order to which I took a turbinated receiver, and, 00:03:31.394 --> 00:03:33.592 putting a candle to the pipe of the receiver, 00:03:33.592 --> 00:03:37.297 whilst the spirit arose, I observed that it catched flame, 00:03:37.297 --> 00:03:42.879 and continued burning at the end of the pipe though you could not discern what fed the flame. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.255 I then blew it out and lighted it again several times. 00:03:46.865 --> 00:03:48.143 As would I, Clayton. 00:03:48.586 --> 00:03:50.037 As would I. 00:03:50.508 --> 00:03:54.262 The discovery of this inflammable air, as it was often called, 00:03:54.262 --> 00:03:56.271 was a real mind-bender. 00:03:56.271 --> 00:03:58.646 What’s burning? People asked. 00:03:58.646 --> 00:04:02.226 How can there be fire with no oil and no wick? 00:04:02.226 --> 00:04:04.923 Seemed like an impossibility and nothing more. 00:04:04.923 --> 00:04:06.524 But of course it wasn’t. 00:04:06.524 --> 00:04:09.304 However it would take quite a long time, 00:04:09.304 --> 00:04:12.831 in fact more than a century from when that letter was written 00:04:12.831 --> 00:04:15.019 for it to be put to use. 00:04:15.019 --> 00:04:16.640 It was the factories of England, 00:04:16.640 --> 00:04:20.351 thanks to their owners who wished to see greater productivity out of their workers, 00:04:20.351 --> 00:04:25.011 where we could find the first permanent application for this wondrous stuff. 00:04:25.011 --> 00:04:28.341 Specifically, at Watt & Boulton of Soho. 00:04:28.341 --> 00:04:32.882 As it happened the owners had already expressed interest in improved lighting technologies, 00:04:32.882 --> 00:04:36.494 and they knew Argand personally and used his lamps. 00:04:36.494 --> 00:04:38.791 But one of their associates, William Murdoch, 00:04:38.791 --> 00:04:43.778 would develop the coal-gas production and storage methods which were to quickly become the standard. 00:04:43.778 --> 00:04:45.367 More or less. 00:04:45.367 --> 00:04:49.169 Oh and quick side note, at basically the exact same time 00:04:49.169 --> 00:04:54.915 a French guy named Phillippe LeBon was doing similar work and developed something called the thermolamp, 00:04:54.915 --> 00:05:00.012 but his idea centered around producing the gas at the hyper-local level, 00:05:00.012 --> 00:05:04.320 as in you would have a gas distilling apparatus in your home, 00:05:04.320 --> 00:05:06.912 and ultimately the concept fizzled out. 00:05:06.912 --> 00:05:13.543 Originally experimenting with balloon-like containers to store and perhaps even transport the gas, 00:05:13.543 --> 00:05:18.369 Murdoch eventually found that the only reasonable way to make use of this gas 00:05:18.369 --> 00:05:22.977 was with pipes to distribute it, and so-called gasometers for storage. 00:05:22.977 --> 00:05:28.727 Which, funnily enough, were devices conceived by none other than our old pal Antoine Lavoisier. 00:05:28.727 --> 00:05:33.312 Murdoch, by the way, is responsible for calling it a “gasometer” 00:05:33.312 --> 00:05:38.084 which annoyed many scientists because it is not a measuring implement of any sort. 00:05:38.084 --> 00:05:44.494 Those with a particular keenness towards accuracy much prefer the term gas holder. 00:05:44.494 --> 00:05:47.028 Nevertheless, gasometer stuck around. 00:05:47.028 --> 00:05:49.973 Anyway, first done at the rather small scale of 00:05:49.973 --> 00:05:54.301 on-site gas production and storage for lighting a single factory, 00:05:54.301 --> 00:05:57.401 this idea quickly scaled up and spread out. 00:05:57.401 --> 00:06:04.494 As luck would have it, producing coal gas used basically the same exact process as producing coke from coal, 00:06:04.494 --> 00:06:09.929 which had already been in routine production for the high temperature furnaces used in metalworking. 00:06:09.929 --> 00:06:13.924 In fact the gas was a byproduct of the coke production process. 00:06:13.924 --> 00:06:19.131 So basically, we already had the knowledge and equipment for this new gas stuff, 00:06:19.131 --> 00:06:22.370 and just needed to tweak how the coal was distilled a little bit 00:06:22.370 --> 00:06:26.473 and make an effort to collect and store the gas. 00:06:26.473 --> 00:06:30.704 Before long, central coal gas supplies were feeding entire neighborhoods, 00:06:30.704 --> 00:06:34.901 and an imaginative revolution in lighting was swiftly upon us. 00:06:35.427 --> 00:06:39.646 This manufactured gas contained a lot of so-called illuminants, 00:06:39.646 --> 00:06:43.240 or components which helped produce a bright flame. 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:48.449 I mentioned it in passing, but what actually makes the flame of a candle glow 00:06:48.449 --> 00:06:52.032 are small particles within the flame that are incandescing. 00:06:52.863 --> 00:06:55.160 That’s a very complicated topic 00:06:55.160 --> 00:06:57.904 and there are a number of reasons those particles can 00:06:57.904 --> 00:07:01.162 A) exist and B) glow, 00:07:01.162 --> 00:07:08.885 but you’ll only get a bright flame if there's something in the fuel which will glow brightly with the heat of combustion. 00:07:08.885 --> 00:07:11.771 A natural gas flame hardly glows at all 00:07:11.771 --> 00:07:17.196 because the fuel is quite pure and burns completely thanks to a well-designed burner. 00:07:17.196 --> 00:07:22.624 In fact the blue color of that flame is the result of an entirely different chemical process. 00:07:22.624 --> 00:07:26.472 A flat-wick kerosene lamp not only burns a less-pure, 00:07:26.472 --> 00:07:28.569 or you might say “dirtier” fuel, 00:07:28.569 --> 00:07:33.110 but much more importantly that combustion isn’t as complete, 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:38.999 so little bits of unburned fuel end up as soot which will glow in the heat of the flame. 00:07:38.999 --> 00:07:40.728 The same goes for a candle. 00:07:40.728 --> 00:07:43.416 And for this new coal gas. 00:07:43.416 --> 00:07:45.615 By tweaking the coal distilling process, 00:07:45.615 --> 00:07:48.537 and also by using different sources of coal, 00:07:48.537 --> 00:07:52.130 the illuminating ability of the gas could be maximized. 00:07:52.130 --> 00:07:58.091 And since the gas was already a vapor and didn’t rely on a wick to evaporate and burn, 00:07:58.091 --> 00:08:03.221 the flames could be much larger without becoming sooty, and thus they could be brighter. 00:08:03.221 --> 00:08:07.715 A common design for a burner produced a sort of fan-shaped flame, 00:08:07.715 --> 00:08:11.418 and with a limitless-to-the-user supply of fuel in the wall, 00:08:11.418 --> 00:08:14.167 brighter lights were easy to accomplish. 00:08:14.167 --> 00:08:17.141 Just add more burners as desired. 00:08:17.141 --> 00:08:22.424 The decades that followed saw countless designs for new lighting fixtures. 00:08:22.424 --> 00:08:24.995 We also developed the first light switches, 00:08:24.995 --> 00:08:29.223 which in this case were valves that could stop and start the flow of gas. 00:08:29.223 --> 00:08:32.757 Those quickly started being placed near the entry of rooms, 00:08:32.757 --> 00:08:36.082 pretty much exactly where we put light switches today. 00:08:36.082 --> 00:08:41.153 This coal gas infrastructure looked an awful lot like the electric lights that would replace them 00:08:41.153 --> 00:08:46.756 in no small part because those electric lights were emulating how the gas ones worked. 00:08:46.756 --> 00:08:48.355 Now, just as it is today, 00:08:48.355 --> 00:08:51.063 gaslighting was unpleasant. 00:08:51.063 --> 00:08:54.851 Oh sure, it was marvelously better than candles 00:08:54.851 --> 00:08:59.578 and when we first started using it everybody was wowed out of their minds. 00:08:59.578 --> 00:09:03.382 But we quickly found its many problems. 00:09:03.382 --> 00:09:08.664 This coal gas was very toxic and it was not hard at all to be poisoned by it. 00:09:08.664 --> 00:09:12.380 Unlike gas of today, there wasn’t much pressure in the pipes 00:09:12.380 --> 00:09:17.939 so you couldn’t actually hear the gas escaping even from a normally-operating fixture. 00:09:17.939 --> 00:09:21.229 This made leaks undetectable in many cases. 00:09:21.229 --> 00:09:25.008 Deadly gas explosions weren’t exactly uncommon, either. 00:09:25.008 --> 00:09:31.013 And the infrastructure which moved it around would pollute soil and groundwater when it leaked. 00:09:31.013 --> 00:09:35.098 Even when things were going well, we also ran into problems 00:09:35.098 --> 00:09:40.655 because we were burning so much of the gas that we were using up all the oxygen in a room. 00:09:40.655 --> 00:09:43.396 There was a downside to more light, 00:09:43.396 --> 00:09:45.868 we just hadn’t run into that limitation yet 00:09:45.868 --> 00:09:51.772 because candles and oil lamps realistically didn’t consume enough oxygen to be problematic. 00:09:51.772 --> 00:09:55.719 While we would eventually develop fixtures which had their own ventilation 00:09:55.719 --> 00:10:00.386 (this also helped cut back on how hot the lights made the rooms in which they were used) 00:10:00.386 --> 00:10:05.113 even then places which needed a lot of light would run low on oxygen. 00:10:05.149 --> 00:10:09.610 It was very common for people to find going to the theater to be an unpleasant, 00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:11.706 headache-inducing experience 00:10:11.706 --> 00:10:16.176 because they were literally being partly asphyxiated the whole time. 00:10:16.176 --> 00:10:22.396 Oh and also if you’ve heard about how over time the byproducts of this gas would do things like 00:10:22.396 --> 00:10:27.043 darken walls and cover paintings in layers of goopy soot, 00:10:27.043 --> 00:10:28.750 well that was also a thing. 00:10:28.750 --> 00:10:31.855 Over the decades people simply lost their affinity for the stuff. 00:10:31.855 --> 00:10:33.691 And it’s no wonder. 00:10:33.691 --> 00:10:36.834 And so now we are back to this. 00:10:36.834 --> 00:10:40.786 Up ‘til now, more light meant more fire. 00:10:40.786 --> 00:10:46.487 We still relied on the illuminating particles in the gas to provide the visible light we wanted. 00:10:46.487 --> 00:10:48.963 But this was about to change. 00:10:48.963 --> 00:10:55.370 In 1886, Austrian chemist Auer von Welsbach invented the incandescent gas mantle, 00:10:55.370 --> 00:10:57.977 and it’s what makes this lamp so bright. 00:10:57.977 --> 00:11:01.740 Here, we are simply using the heat of the flame to our advantage. 00:11:01.740 --> 00:11:04.479 We no longer care if it produces light of its own, 00:11:04.479 --> 00:11:10.021 we just want it to get the mantle very hot which causes the mantle to glow. 00:11:10.021 --> 00:11:14.681 This principle was known long before Welsbach invented the gas mantle. 00:11:14.681 --> 00:11:17.057 Limelight, mainly used in theaters, 00:11:17.057 --> 00:11:19.120 was a direct predecessor. 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:22.353 Here a piece of calcium oxide, or quicklime, 00:11:22.353 --> 00:11:26.042 was heated to incandescence by an oxyhydrogen flame. 00:11:26.042 --> 00:11:29.330 If you want to see what that looks like, there’s a video linked in the description 00:11:29.330 --> 00:11:31.482 or you can check out the card here. 00:11:31.482 --> 00:11:37.336 Of note is that a second phenomenon, candoluminescense, is known to be going on here as well. 00:11:37.336 --> 00:11:41.315 This phenomenon causes certain materials to emit more visible light 00:11:41.315 --> 00:11:44.463 than a blackbody radiator would at the same temperature, 00:11:44.463 --> 00:11:46.709 and, well, 00:11:46.709 --> 00:11:54.525 the explanation on that is a little confusing to me and honestly it doesn’t seem like the knowledge of the mechanism is entirely settled yet 00:11:54.525 --> 00:11:58.753 so we’re just gonna acknowledge it’s a thing! And move on. 00:11:58.753 --> 00:12:03.547 What Welsbach figured out was how to make the same general principle of limelight 00:12:03.547 --> 00:12:07.103 work with the low intensity flames of ordinary gas. 00:12:07.103 --> 00:12:10.335 Now, we need to make a quick clarification here. 00:12:10.335 --> 00:12:16.661 The coal gas of this time period didn’t have to burn with a visible flame like a candle. 00:12:16.661 --> 00:12:19.502 Burners meant for lighting would of course do that, 00:12:19.502 --> 00:12:25.779 but with better control of the air as it mixes with the gas, a cleaner, hotter flame could be attained. 00:12:25.779 --> 00:12:28.703 This is what the Bunsen burner was designed for. 00:12:28.703 --> 00:12:34.260 And indeed, Welsbach would use Bunsen-type burners for his new gas mantles. 00:12:34.260 --> 00:12:37.753 And the Aladdin lamp makes use of those gas mantles. 00:12:37.753 --> 00:12:42.079 By the way, this is the same Aladdin lamp company that invented the touch lamp! 00:12:42.079 --> 00:12:43.975 So there you go. 00:12:43.975 --> 00:12:48.853 Now, I must admit that we’re going a little out of order here. 00:12:48.853 --> 00:12:54.095 The gas mantle was in-effect adapted for use in kerosene lamps like this one. 00:12:54.095 --> 00:12:57.392 Welsbach was working with Bunsen burners and coal gas, 00:12:57.392 --> 00:13:02.372 and this implementation actually has some significant drawbacks which we’ll get to, 00:13:02.372 --> 00:13:07.355 but for narrative reasons I’m explaining it with this lamp first. 00:13:07.355 --> 00:13:10.663 If you noticed that the burner and chimney look very different 00:13:10.663 --> 00:13:13.585 from the Dietz lanterns and the dead-flame lamp, 00:13:13.585 --> 00:13:15.505 well that’s on purpose. 00:13:15.505 --> 00:13:17.618 This tubular wick burner, 00:13:17.618 --> 00:13:24.579 which is not really an Argand burner, again that was a red herring, it just sorta looks like one… anyway. 00:13:24.579 --> 00:13:26.292 The skinny and tall chimney, 00:13:26.292 --> 00:13:27.896 combined with the hollow wick, 00:13:27.896 --> 00:13:33.809 creates a central-draft burner that burns kerosene much more intensely than these guys. 00:13:33.809 --> 00:13:39.599 If you noticed when I removed the mantle and showed the flames - how high they went - yeah. 00:13:39.599 --> 00:13:41.915 This is a very different animal. 00:13:41.915 --> 00:13:44.287 Atop the burner sits the mantle. 00:13:44.287 --> 00:13:50.209 Its lace-like appearance suggests it could be a sort of fabric, but it’s not. 00:13:50.209 --> 00:13:53.076 However, it was! 00:13:53.076 --> 00:13:56.119 We’ll get there, that part is extremely clever. 00:13:56.119 --> 00:13:57.644 In its current state, though, 00:13:57.644 --> 00:14:02.309 this is a very fragile lattice of effectively ash. 00:14:02.309 --> 00:14:06.492 This has very little mass, a large part of why it’s so fragile. 00:14:06.492 --> 00:14:08.212 And it’s made from… 00:14:08.212 --> 00:14:13.073 did you know there’s controversy regarding the phasing out of thorium in gas mantles? 00:14:13.073 --> 00:14:16.600 Some very picky campers certainly do but most of you probably don’t. 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:18.630 Happened like 30 years ago. 00:14:18.630 --> 00:14:19.877 We’ll talk about that later. 00:14:19.877 --> 00:14:21.634 But, uh, right. 00:14:21.634 --> 00:14:26.129 Anyway, this mantle is probably composed mainly of yttrium oxide 00:14:26.129 --> 00:14:29.414 which is a ceramic material with a very high melting point. 00:14:29.414 --> 00:14:31.278 About 2,400 degrees Celsius, 00:14:31.278 --> 00:14:33.385 or 4,400 degrees Fahrenheit, 00:14:33.385 --> 00:14:37.412 or just shy of 2,700 degrees Kelvin. 00:14:37.412 --> 00:14:39.955 Because it can get that hot without melting, 00:14:39.955 --> 00:14:42.201 it can incandesce brightly. 00:14:42.201 --> 00:14:46.196 And that means it will produce a lot of visible light when heated with fire. 00:14:46.196 --> 00:14:49.084 Take a look, here’s me holding a lighter to it. 00:14:49.084 --> 00:14:52.942 You see a glowing hot-spot pretty much as white as an incandescent light bulb. 00:14:52.942 --> 00:14:57.455 But, you’ll notice that it glows best near the hot, blue part of the flame. 00:14:57.455 --> 00:14:59.743 If I switch to a torch-style lighter, 00:14:59.743 --> 00:15:02.215 which uses a burner not unlike a Bunsen burner, 00:15:02.269 --> 00:15:06.709 you’ll see it makes a brighter and more uniform spot on the mantle. 00:15:06.709 --> 00:15:11.835 The best flame for illuminating the mantle is clearly a pure and hot one. 00:15:11.835 --> 00:15:15.239 Getting that sort of flame with kerosene and a wick 00:15:15.239 --> 00:15:18.420 is the reason the Aladdin lamp is somewhat special. 00:15:18.420 --> 00:15:20.699 The burner is able to do just that. 00:15:20.699 --> 00:15:24.824 In practice, you light this lamp by removing the entire top section, 00:15:24.824 --> 00:15:26.264 known as the gallery. 00:15:26.264 --> 00:15:28.410 This holds the chimney and mantle. 00:15:28.410 --> 00:15:30.401 That grants you access to the wick. 00:15:30.401 --> 00:15:33.641 Then you simply light it and put the gallery back on. 00:15:33.641 --> 00:15:35.219 Then, when you lift the wick, 00:15:35.219 --> 00:15:38.390 the strong draft created by the tall, slender chimney 00:15:38.390 --> 00:15:41.290 along with the hollow wick and flame spreader 00:15:41.290 --> 00:15:46.865 combine to create an astonishingly clean-burning, high-heat kerosene flame. 00:15:46.865 --> 00:15:50.943 The mantle’s shape helps confine the flame and its heat energy 00:15:50.943 --> 00:15:54.724 so that it acts upon it as much as possible and voila. 00:15:54.724 --> 00:15:58.471 A very bright, surprisingly usable kerosene lamp. 00:15:58.471 --> 00:16:02.893 And this burns so cleanly it’s entirely odorless. 00:16:02.893 --> 00:16:04.719 Seriously. This is amazing to me, 00:16:04.719 --> 00:16:08.896 you really only get heat from this thing. There’s no smell at all, 00:16:08.896 --> 00:16:13.342 and yet it’s burning the same kerosene as these Dietzes. 00:16:13.342 --> 00:16:15.676 But its burner, while clearly unique, 00:16:15.676 --> 00:16:18.088 isn’t the star of this show. 00:16:18.088 --> 00:16:20.689 The reason the mantle can glow so brightly, 00:16:20.689 --> 00:16:23.771 aside from the fact that it’s made from a heat-tolerant material, 00:16:23.771 --> 00:16:26.518 is that it’s so incredibly light. 00:16:26.518 --> 00:16:29.681 I wasn’t exaggerating that this is basically ash, 00:16:29.681 --> 00:16:31.982 this stuff is hardly even there. 00:16:31.982 --> 00:16:37.288 Having such a miniscule thermal mass allows it to easily get to incandescent temperatures 00:16:37.288 --> 00:16:41.481 without relying on an oxyhydrogen flame as limelight did. 00:16:41.481 --> 00:16:43.926 But if it’s so light and fragile, 00:16:43.926 --> 00:16:46.718 how on Earth are you supposed to install one? 00:16:46.718 --> 00:16:49.132 And why does it look like a tiny hairnet? 00:16:49.132 --> 00:16:51.510 Well, here’s the clever bit. 00:16:51.510 --> 00:16:54.651 This mantle was a fabric mesh. 00:16:54.651 --> 00:17:00.871 But the strings which made that mesh were coated in a solution containing salts of yttrium nitrate 00:17:00.871 --> 00:17:03.628 and potentially some other chemicals, too. 00:17:03.628 --> 00:17:08.576 Here’s a different mantle which, spoiler, will come up later. 00:17:08.576 --> 00:17:14.267 This one hasn’t been used yet and it's soft, fairly strong, and quite flexible. 00:17:14.267 --> 00:17:16.562 The actual fibers that make up the mantle 00:17:16.562 --> 00:17:19.888 can be made of cotton, rayon, really a number of things 00:17:19.888 --> 00:17:23.666 so long as they can soak up and retain the salt solution. 00:17:23.666 --> 00:17:27.657 The yttrium oxide doesn’t exist yet in this form, 00:17:27.657 --> 00:17:29.730 but it will when we burn it. 00:17:29.730 --> 00:17:35.680 The mantle of the Aladdin lamp is a little different as it comes coated in this blue stuff which holds its shape. 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:37.834 And when you set light to it, 00:17:37.834 --> 00:17:39.429 this happens. 00:17:39.429 --> 00:17:43.569 That initial burn-off converted the salts of yttrium nitrate in the fibers 00:17:43.569 --> 00:17:48.334 into solid yttrium oxide and also burned everything else away. 00:17:48.334 --> 00:17:51.773 Normally the mantles don’t just up and fwoomp like that - 00:17:51.773 --> 00:17:59.566 that blue stuff (I’m not sure what it is - it might be collodion or possibly celluloid - let us know if you know) 00:17:59.566 --> 00:18:02.242 it accelerates the process greatly. 00:18:02.242 --> 00:18:04.198 But the end-result is the same. 00:18:04.198 --> 00:18:08.226 The ghostly remains of the newly-formed yttrium oxide 00:18:08.226 --> 00:18:09.832 and pretty much nothing else. 00:18:09.832 --> 00:18:15.986 It takes the form of the fabric net because that’s where the nitrates were just a moment ago. 00:18:15.986 --> 00:18:20.969 And now that it’s here, all you need to do is get it hot and it will glow. 00:18:20.969 --> 00:18:24.341 And importantly, it doesn’t burn away. 00:18:24.341 --> 00:18:29.733 The benefit here is that you get much more light with the same amount of fuel. 00:18:29.733 --> 00:18:33.678 This lamp does burn fuel more quickly than a Dietz lantern, 00:18:33.678 --> 00:18:36.849 but it’s an order of magnitude brighter. 00:18:36.849 --> 00:18:39.029 The light is also much whiter - 00:18:39.029 --> 00:18:42.437 no longer the yellow of a flame but a true white. 00:18:42.437 --> 00:18:44.569 In the city where the fuel was gas, 00:18:44.569 --> 00:18:48.064 you could have much more light with fewer burners. 00:18:48.064 --> 00:18:50.607 Now you don’t have to use up all the oxygen in the room, 00:18:50.607 --> 00:18:53.436 and you’ll have a much smaller gas bill. 00:18:53.436 --> 00:18:57.457 In a way, this was an early energy-efficiency technology. 00:18:57.457 --> 00:18:58.715 How ‘bout that. 00:18:58.715 --> 00:19:03.271 Also, the need to burn the fuels more completely in Bunsen-type burners 00:19:03.271 --> 00:19:06.367 undoubtedly created a healthier environment. 00:19:06.367 --> 00:19:10.509 It’s quite interesting that this lamp produces no odor 00:19:10.509 --> 00:19:14.952 when its kerosene and flat wick compatriots all do. 00:19:14.952 --> 00:19:20.235 I had assumed that there might be some catalytic reaction going on with the gas mantle, 00:19:20.235 --> 00:19:22.940 but I haven’t found any evidence for that. 00:19:22.940 --> 00:19:29.086 Instead I think it’s just the fact that the burner actually manages to burn the kerosene completely. 00:19:29.086 --> 00:19:34.449 You can even see how the flame is bluer, almost like a stovetop under the mantle. 00:19:34.449 --> 00:19:36.626 Just like a bunsen burner. 00:19:36.626 --> 00:19:42.472 While I haven’t found any contemporary reports of the switch to gas mantles providing healthier indoor air, 00:19:42.472 --> 00:19:45.175 I can’t imagine that didn’t happen. 00:19:45.175 --> 00:19:50.014 Although, this discussion is muddied by the fact that the gas mantle was invented 00:19:50.014 --> 00:19:55.730 at just about the same time that the electric light bulb was being perfected. 00:19:55.730 --> 00:20:01.336 One of the things Schivelbusch mentions regarding electric light which is largely lost today 00:20:01.336 --> 00:20:06.390 is that the big deal of the carbon filament lamp was that, finally, 00:20:06.390 --> 00:20:09.593 we had an electric light that mimicked gaslight. 00:20:10.785 --> 00:20:12.897 Yes. You heard that right. 00:20:12.897 --> 00:20:18.139 Electric light was around long before whoever gets to rightfully claim invention of the carbon filament lamp 00:20:18.139 --> 00:20:20.051 invented the carbon filament lamp, 00:20:20.051 --> 00:20:26.681 but the arc lights of that time were way too bright to find their way into small spaces. 00:20:26.681 --> 00:20:33.631 The carbon filament light bulb was about the same brightness of contemporary open-flame gas lights. 00:20:33.631 --> 00:20:39.200 Electric light hadn’t so much been invented as it was tamed. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:44.851 The gas mantle therefore represented a brighter than electric light (for the home anyway) 00:20:44.851 --> 00:20:46.404 for a short time. 00:20:46.404 --> 00:20:49.357 Once the tungsten filament was developed in the early 1900’s 00:20:49.357 --> 00:20:51.511 electric light achieved parity, 00:20:51.511 --> 00:20:57.361 but there was a short time where the gas mantle could legitimately be viewed as superior. 00:20:57.361 --> 00:21:03.567 And so, in a funny way, the gas mantle ended up slowing the progress of electrification. 00:21:03.567 --> 00:21:09.242 I mean, why go through the trouble of signing up for electricity when you’ve got gas already, 00:21:09.242 --> 00:21:11.114 you’re gonna keep it for cooking, 00:21:11.114 --> 00:21:16.083 and these new mantles make it just as bright as these newfangled electric lamps 00:21:16.083 --> 00:21:18.000 which seem scary and new! 00:21:18.887 --> 00:21:23.750 It was a pretty rational choice to ignore electricity. For a while anyway. 00:21:23.750 --> 00:21:26.267 But what about outside of cities? 00:21:26.267 --> 00:21:30.121 Rural areas certainly weren’t the first in line for electrification 00:21:30.121 --> 00:21:31.969 or indeed gas service, 00:21:31.969 --> 00:21:36.534 so portable lamps and lanterns would remain the king for quite a while. 00:21:36.534 --> 00:21:40.553 And that’s the niche that the Aladdin lamp fits into. 00:21:40.553 --> 00:21:43.690 But it’s certainly not perfect. 00:21:43.690 --> 00:21:45.882 It will be hard to show this on camera, 00:21:45.882 --> 00:21:50.186 but this particular lamp seems to have a defective wick. 00:21:50.186 --> 00:21:53.123 It does not burn uniformly at all, 00:21:53.123 --> 00:21:56.498 there’s a substantial hot spot on one side. 00:21:56.498 --> 00:21:59.541 Try as I might I cannot completely tame this, 00:21:59.541 --> 00:22:04.217 I’ve used the included wick cleaner and even gone so far as to use an X-Acto knife 00:22:04.217 --> 00:22:07.973 to cut off a few millimeters of wick and make it level. 00:22:07.973 --> 00:22:09.552 But it’s still there, 00:22:09.552 --> 00:22:13.955 one spot of the wick seems to be simply thicker than the rest, I think. 00:22:13.955 --> 00:22:18.299 It’s not a huge problem but I cannot run this lamp at its full brightness 00:22:18.299 --> 00:22:24.750 because if I turn it too high, that hot spot actually produces a visible flame that leaves the mantle. 00:22:24.750 --> 00:22:28.391 And it starts depositing unburned fuel on it. 00:22:28.391 --> 00:22:32.914 This is actually kind of fascinating because, so long as this doesn’t go on for too long, 00:22:32.914 --> 00:22:37.047 you can reduce the intensity and that carbon buildup will burn away. 00:22:37.047 --> 00:22:42.300 But if it does go on too long, it could damage the mantle and indeed the lamp itself. 00:22:42.300 --> 00:22:48.736 At some point I’ll replace the wick, but that is a significant downside to this style of lamp. 00:22:49.240 --> 00:22:53.547 Speaking of downsides, perhaps the biggest one for this style of lamp is that, 00:22:53.547 --> 00:22:55.346 even with a perfect wick, 00:22:55.346 --> 00:22:58.979 they demand near-constant attention. 00:22:58.979 --> 00:23:02.554 There’s a rather small sweet spot for operating it. 00:23:02.554 --> 00:23:05.031 Too low and the mantle doesn’t glow, 00:23:05.031 --> 00:23:13.096 and it’s a very small distance on the wick lifter between not glowing and the flame is way too high. 00:23:13.096 --> 00:23:17.661 Since the kerosene will evaporate more quickly as the lamp heats up from cold, 00:23:17.661 --> 00:23:22.178 it gets brighter on its own in the first ten minutes or so of operation, 00:23:22.178 --> 00:23:28.753 and in fact the instructions provided tell you to make sure you’re checking on it every 30 minutes. 00:23:28.753 --> 00:23:32.264 Really, this thing is just in a very delicate balance. 00:23:32.264 --> 00:23:33.567 Take a look at this. 00:23:33.567 --> 00:23:36.100 [blows into lamp base] 00:23:37.236 --> 00:23:38.806 That’s terrifying. 00:23:38.806 --> 00:23:39.686 So then... 00:23:41.847 --> 00:23:46.267 it won’t surprise you to learn that these things cannot be used outdoors. 00:23:46.267 --> 00:23:52.976 There’s just no way you’re going to get the necessary stability of the flame with really any wind at all. 00:23:52.976 --> 00:23:56.610 But the Aladdin lamp is, and has always been, 00:23:56.610 --> 00:23:58.468 a weird case. 00:23:58.468 --> 00:24:00.902 And that’s why showcasing it here is… 00:24:00.902 --> 00:24:04.834 well not really how gas mantles were used most of the time. 00:24:04.834 --> 00:24:10.432 The Aladdin lamp shows that you *can* use kerosene and a wick to drive a gas mantle, 00:24:10.432 --> 00:24:12.218 but the best thing to use is… 00:24:12.744 --> 00:24:14.055 gas. 00:24:14.055 --> 00:24:15.902 But now, here’s a question. 00:24:15.902 --> 00:24:18.090 How do you make that portable? 00:24:18.090 --> 00:24:21.025 Well, here’s one option. 00:24:21.025 --> 00:24:24.395 This is a modern propane camping lantern. 00:24:24.395 --> 00:24:26.600 [spark from ignitor and whooshing of fuel] 00:24:26.600 --> 00:24:29.841 It’s really nothing more than a modified propane torch. 00:24:29.841 --> 00:24:33.700 Instead of being a, well, torch 00:24:33.700 --> 00:24:38.424 the gas comes out of these two orifices which have a gas mantle tied around them. 00:24:38.424 --> 00:24:40.849 This is a remarkably bright lantern, 00:24:40.849 --> 00:24:45.281 something close to 100 watts incandescent equivalent at its full brightness, 00:24:45.281 --> 00:24:46.957 but... 00:24:46.957 --> 00:24:51.093 well these little bottles of propane are a rather recent thing. 00:24:51.093 --> 00:24:54.518 They weren’t around when these lanterns were first invented. 00:24:54.518 --> 00:24:58.955 Instead, these lanterns were originally made to run on, 00:24:58.955 --> 00:25:00.380 wait for it, 00:25:00.380 --> 00:25:01.988 gasoline! 00:25:01.988 --> 00:25:03.953 Or in some countries kerosene. 00:25:03.953 --> 00:25:06.570 Or even margarine — wait no, not that one. 00:25:07.623 --> 00:25:11.793 but lots of different liquid fuels could be used in lanterns like these. 00:25:11.793 --> 00:25:14.889 However, that presents a challenge. 00:25:14.889 --> 00:25:19.385 For instance, gasoline’s flashpoint is way too low to use with a wick, 00:25:19.385 --> 00:25:22.015 unless your goal is to set yourself on fire, 00:25:22.015 --> 00:25:25.201 and besides we don’t want a wick-style flame anyway. 00:25:25.201 --> 00:25:27.112 We want a Bunsen flame. 00:25:27.112 --> 00:25:31.711 Sure we can get that from propane because it is a gas at atmospheric pressures. 00:25:31.711 --> 00:25:33.755 Just let it out of the bottle. 00:25:33.755 --> 00:25:38.808 But how do you do that with a liquid fuel like kerosene? Or gasoline? 00:25:38.808 --> 00:25:41.889 Well, we’ll talk about that in the next video. 00:25:41.889 --> 00:25:44.934 And we’ll also talk about that thorium debacle. 00:25:44.934 --> 00:25:48.029 It’s a real thor spot for some campers out there. 00:25:48.029 --> 00:25:51.569 By the way, if you’re wondering where I got an Aladdin lamp, 00:25:51.569 --> 00:25:57.163 well much like these Dietz lanterns these just never stopped getting made. 00:25:57.163 --> 00:26:01.477 However, at this point they’re clearly more of a collector’s item. 00:26:01.477 --> 00:26:07.380 They’re also not cheap, costing more than of $200 for a basic lamp like this one. 00:26:07.380 --> 00:26:09.952 But, unlike a Dietz lantern, 00:26:09.952 --> 00:26:13.166 they’re safe-ish to use indoors 00:26:13.166 --> 00:26:16.713 (I would certainly never leave this unattended for a moment) 00:26:16.713 --> 00:26:21.259 But also they're just much more useful by virtue of being, ya know, 00:26:21.259 --> 00:26:24.180 a bright light that doesn’t smell terrible. 00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:29.370 I actually used this during a power outage, and it was pretty ideal actually. 00:26:29.370 --> 00:26:31.978 They produce a lot of heat so not great in the summer, 00:26:31.978 --> 00:26:34.917 but it’s also not tremendously much. 00:26:34.917 --> 00:26:37.800 Something like 800 or 900 watts. 00:26:37.800 --> 00:26:40.770 However, that heat is very pronounced. 00:26:40.770 --> 00:26:47.489 The narrow chimney and strong draft mean it is painful to put your hand anywhere near the top of it, 00:26:47.489 --> 00:26:51.829 like, even here that's really painful if you can even see that. 00:26:51.829 --> 00:26:56.370 Now, that also means that the chimney needs to be made of borosilicate glass 00:26:56.370 --> 00:27:01.741 to withstand the enormous temperature swing from cold to extremely hot. 00:27:01.741 --> 00:27:07.665 The metal frame holding the mantle glows red hot at the top after it’s been in use for a while. 00:27:07.665 --> 00:27:12.342 And the biggest downside to the Aladdin lamp is that you have to use kerosene. 00:27:12.342 --> 00:27:19.521 You can’t use any of the various alternatives, which is by the way why I’ve been burning straight kerosene in the Dietz lanterns. 00:27:19.521 --> 00:27:23.083 That’s not a huge problem as kerosene is widely available, 00:27:23.083 --> 00:27:26.707 but you’ll likely be buying it exclusively for the lamp. 00:27:26.707 --> 00:27:29.002 Unless you had, maybe, a kerosene heater, too. 00:27:29.002 --> 00:27:32.486 But really it’s just a rather niche fuel at this point. 00:27:32.486 --> 00:27:35.505 Oh, and one of my very favorite things about this? 00:27:35.505 --> 00:27:37.957 You actually blow it out. 00:27:37.957 --> 00:27:40.605 I’m serious, you don’t just lower the wick all the way. 00:27:40.605 --> 00:27:43.659 If you do that you'll notice there are still flames at the bottom. 00:27:43.659 --> 00:27:47.046 Instead, you lower so far that it stops glowing, 00:27:47.046 --> 00:27:51.192 and then you have to disturb the draft to completely extinguish it. 00:27:51.192 --> 00:27:54.628 So you simply cup your hand behind the chimney 00:27:54.628 --> 00:27:56.163 and blow across the top. 00:27:56.495 --> 00:27:57.249 *whoosh* 00:27:58.274 --> 00:28:01.230 That’s what I call neat. 00:28:02.134 --> 00:28:04.714 ♫ incandescently smooth jazz ♫ 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:07.209 It was the factori… 00:28:07.209 --> 00:28:08.518 It was in the factories of… 00:28:09.321 --> 00:28:11.420 nope. That’s not in the sentence! 00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:16.551 Which, funnily enough, were devices conceived by nuh-thother heh fleurrghhhhh 00:28:16.551 --> 00:28:21.512 By tweaking the coal distilling process and also by using different source… 00:28:21.862 --> 00:28:22.863 No! That was correct! 00:28:22.863 --> 00:28:23.763 Why did you stop? 00:28:24.124 --> 00:28:27.070 And also they’re much more useful by birtue of… 00:28:27.458 --> 00:28:28.531 by birtue? 00:28:28.725 --> 00:28:32.035 But we quickly found its various downsides. 00:28:32.090 --> 00:28:33.018 Shoot. 00:28:33.018 --> 00:28:38.580 But it’s so light and fragile, how on Earth are you supposed to install one? 00:28:38.580 --> 00:28:40.524 Ah, I skipped the word “if” 00:28:40.524 --> 00:28:43.095 It takes the form of the fabrit neck... 00:28:45.034 --> 00:28:47.446 I believe I just said “fabrit neck.” 00:28:47.446 --> 00:28:50.256 The actual string, really, can be… oops! 00:28:51.503 --> 00:28:54.754 For those sticking around, we've solved the "forced my lute" mystery. 00:28:54.754 --> 00:28:58.640 Apparently lute was a sort of sealant used with glassware in the mad scientist alchemy days and whatnot. 00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:01.366 So "forced my lute" probably meant "broke the seal." 00:29:01.366 --> 00:29:04.104 Also, you're right, this is in a pinned comment already. 00:29:04.298 --> 00:29:06.523 The post-credits captions aren't that special this time, huh. 00:29:06.523 --> 00:29:07.212 Dagnabbit.