The decorative lamp that's built wrong on purpose
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- čas přidán 11. 12. 2022
- It's a festive flickery flicker fest!
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/ technologyconnections - Věda a technologie
I was fully prepared to just accept it it was still no effort November
I was so confused at first why he stopped the intro. How are we nearly 2 weeks into December????
It's uh ... Do no effort December
I was prepared for "there's so little effort, I didn't even check the date/get this video out on time"
Muhahaha
Eh, might as well be “Effort Free Eternity” - It would pass my vibe check.
11:48 I have been wondering for literally YEARS why this one power strip I have only flickers in the dark. I thought I was going crazy. I love this channel so much
Same here! I just shined my phone light on my power strip's flickering light and was properly awed.
We've been enlightened!
Same. I got a whole set of extension cords which, I discovered after getting home, have lights inside. But when it's dark, they flicker. If I shine even a tiny amount of light at them, the glow becomes solid. I always wondered WTF was going on... like if it had a light sensor or something.
Now I feel compelled to check all the power strips in my house. Some are 30 to 40 years old, so this should be fun.
@@ToyKeeper In a way, the discharge lamp _is_ the sensor
Power strips should be replaced every 5 years or so. If it's been that long, it probably won't do it's job in an overload.
Thanks so much for actual closed captioning! I am 80% deaf in both ears, and more often than not subtitles aren't remotely close to what is being said, because it's autogenerated. Not all take the time and care to make their own CC!!
i know what it is but i dont know what the CC stands for... do you know it? i mean the two letter have to stand for something dont they?
@@russellross1513 thank you for the answer :) does the black enclosement/background serve a purpose? to make them easier to read and more accessable?
He even has a video about closed captions
@@lucaskook9440 this very channel has a video about Closed Captioning and the history of accessibility on TV, and I cannot recommend it enough. I've worked with people with hearing disabilities before, and one of the sentences in that video (that the time from an invention that can be used for sending pictures instead of just audio and the time someone decided to use that to make it dead-accessible is absurdly long) was an amazing insight
@@lucaskook9440 you can actually change the background and text styles
I asked a friend of mine who knows about these things and he replied this:
They are coated with metallic sodium to lower the cathodic voltage gradient, sometimes potassium is used which in contact with humid air transforms into white caustic soda
They are also fed with a lower current in order to randomly shift the emission point
Thank you! I was looking for someone mentioning sodium! I suspected that the coating on the electrodes was sodium since the glow is almost the exact same colour as sodium streetlights, and on exposure to air the immediate oxidation that took place (Sodium oxidation is a white colour too, like potassium). That explains it :D
To throw a monkey wrench in the works, the barium he mentioned also turns a white color when it oxidizes.
@@hydrocarbon8272 Barium is quite expensive AFAIK, I doubt they would use it in these cheap lamps.
Yes this is fully correct.
That makes sense. Sodium would oxidize and turn white quickly when exposed to air so that was my first guess
I love flicker flame lamps. But on 240V the resistors in the bases of ours dissipate a lot more power and get fried.
I found that by adding a 100nF capacitor in series it reduces the base temperature while still giving good flicker.
A generic eBay flicker lamp with shiny metal electrodes didn't last long.
Back in my childhood I remember us using some of these for Halloween, and while they don't run hot (these tested at .9 watts) they still don't last long. They sort of lose their spice as they age and get less and less flickery, ironically. It seemed often you're left with just a tiny glow at the base, though I'm not sure we had one that got to that point. Definitely seen that in the wild, though.
Come to think of it, I think that's more evidence that the gas mixture is deliberately poor - it would seem they have little margin for error if they wear out so (relatively) fast.
Was literally coming down here to put the obligatory “get bigclive in here” comment, just to find he’s already here. Typical bigclive.
Also, this is why I love this platform. Two of my favorite channels geeking out about such niche topics.
@@TechnologyConnections my guess would be not the gas quality, but the pressure, higher pressure means its more insulative, meaning at full mains voltage, it could be only on the verge of conducting, making it flicker. Also the coating is a elentron emissive layer, to lower the voltage needed to strike the gas, but dont ask me for whats it actually made out of, i dont know that( maybe some thorium compound based on the fact it got white near oxygen)
Also cold striking a metal in low pressure makes metal "sputter" away from the surface, wich is the failure mode of all gas discharge lamps, but is an essential building block of semiconductor manufacturing
Off to BigClive's channel next!
I used to work in a neon sign workshop and we would see this effect in our tubes occasionally. Its called "worming" and affects plain neon tubes mainly. Its caused when a tube has not had a complete vacuum created before the neon gas is introduced. When the tube warms up, the nitrogen separates from the neon and moves around the tube creating moving dark patches. The neon makes a line between the anode and cathode. The way the nitrogen moves around the glowing line of neon makes it look like a wriggling worm. Thus the name "worming". I am guessing these bulbs are neon with a little nitrogen added to create the flickering effect.
Cool, thanks for the input.
This is what my assumption about those style of lights were as well, deliberately seeding chaos with a little impurity in the gas mixes to create the desired effect. Happens with other things so makes sense with neon lights.
Does this ever cause a sound? I’ve thrown out flickering power strips because they made an insufferable high pitched whine.
Do you know how much of a vacuum you pulled on the tubes?
@@James_Haskin Yes. The buzz gets louder. I assumed it is because it put the transformer under extra load.
One of the hardest working youtubers right here. I can't imagine how many hours it took working under a low pressure neon atmosphere to glue that 10th bulb back together for the shot of all 10 side-by-side-by-side after smashing one.
😂
?
I've wondered about this for years. And, as cheesy as these little bulbs look, I hope they never go away. They don't so much look like a candle flame, but more like a tiny campfire in a bottle. There's something relaxing about that color and flicker. Thanks for trying to solve this little mystery.
They won't. We're not running out of neon :D
@@tsm688 as if that's ever been a solid line of reasoning. as long as people keep buying them, they'll keep making them. that's all there is to it
@@Sillimant_ Except LEDs are replacing everyting from neon signs to fluorescent tubes to halogen and incandescent bulbs as well as sodium and metal halide ones.
In fact some places like the European Union are now outrightly banning pretty much every lamp that is not LED-based !
😱😱
@@psirvent8won't happen unless there's a cheaper way of making an led version. Capitalism rules all
Tiny campfire in a bottle is a perfect description of these lamps, and very appropriate as several of the novelty lamps I've seen meant for use with flicker bulbs use them to represent a campfire.
I’m glad you mentioned the fact that photons entering the bulb will affect the discharge. I just showed my son this effect a few days ago on our Christmas tree, which has two strings of these candles on it. One of the bulbs wasn’t lit at all, so I got out my uv flashlight and shined it on the bulb to “jumpstart” it. Pretty cool - the uv provides enough energy to get the gas ionization to occur.
Many years ago, I used to work in the Shows department at Sea World. One of my duties was to go around to each of the park venues in the morning, and get the show elements up and running for the day. We carried walkie-talkies, which was very handy when a fluorescent tube would 'burble' at the ends, but didn't want to start. If you key the mic button, with the antenna near the tube, you can see the RF field exciting the gas molecules in the UV, which would then excite the phosphor. Hit the right spot, and you have a good chance of helping the starter enough to get the end-to-end plasma discharge established for the day.
@@CineSoar wow thats really interesting! That even RF of that value can do it!
i have a laser pointer in the blackligbt range, would that work you think? (take the lens off and its good for hunting centipedes)
@@soslunnaak I would imagine if a PTT radio would work then a UV laser pointer would but I dont know personally!
@@soslunnaak how is a laser helpful for finding bugs? Wouldn’t you like need to already see the bug to point the laser even close?
As a kid I found one in a box at home. It fascinated me. My dad's explanation was the flickering is caused by insufficient neon gas in the bulb (purposely done) so it cannot produce a constant glow, thus flickers.
Thanks for sharing.
I definitely want a Technology Connections video on Nixie tubes. The things are ridiculously beutiful. I bought nixie clock for my father for his birthday just so I can admire them while visiting...
He could go one further by doing Dekatrons. Check out the ANITA calculator. The worlds first fully electronic calculator. It used Neon for both the Displays and logic.
Techmoan does a couple videos on nixie tubes and nixie clocks , there good
@@shuppy100 Seen them, they are great. But they lack puns...
Flickering fake-flame light bulb: kitsch
Nixie tube: kitsch....for science!
@@klausstock8020 The flickering fake flame lightbulbs really are a kitch made for the sake of being kitch.
Nixie tubes (or Digitrony as they are known here in Eastern Europe) might be kitch today, but they used to be really useful scientific instruments.
The clock I bought for my father are not made from new nixie tubes (as there is just one person in the world who makes these, he's Czech and his creations are kinda expensive), they are repurposed spare parts for some 70s Soviet scientific machine...
If you like fake flickering candles, you're gonna love "flameless moving wick candles." Spouse added some to our indoor holiday decorations and I repeatedly reach around them due to my brain perceiving FIRE! and have found myself scrunching surrounding greenery away from the FIRE! to be safe. It doesn't make sense, but it's the first fake candle my brain passively treats as a live flame.
Yeah, first time I saw one of those, I thought it was a real flame
Right? We have some at work and it happens to me all the time.
Wife bought some and they ARE freakily realistic looking.
Don't get used to em, you'll burn yourself on a real candle.
Iirc Big clive did a video on them many years ago.
The fact that the ambient light drastically affected your power switch’s ability to flicker or sustain glow might have been the most unexpected and fascinating aspect of all of this. Physics can really surprise us
It happens. I have an electric blanket controller where the setting number only shows in flickering orange on black when you shine a little light into it.
similar to a Geiger-Muller tube Gas tubes rely on some residual ionization in order to strike
@@tactileslut I have seen this on electric blankets!
As soon as I heard that I literally paused the video and shined a flashlight onto a very similar power strip indicator that I have.
The fluorescent bathroom lights at our previous home would not strike in total darkness - but they'd turn right on in the presence of any hint of ambient light. I'm an electronics technician, and this never made any sense to me (nor any of my co-workers); it's wonderful to finally hear an explanation!
Quite interesting! I learned a few things!
Get this more up
Serious respect for telling me right at the start about the flickering instead of using the first few seconds to grab the eye of people, thank you.
I have a couple of light switches in my house that have those little neon lamps in them. The neon's on when the switch is off, so you can find the switch in the dark. Pretty neat.
I would have used that as an example if I had one, but sadly I don't!
@@TechnologyConnections woah - and now I know why they stop working after 20 years or so ;)
The other way around is also neat for a cellar or attic, where the light switch could be before you go in. indicating if the light is on for if u forget. Since u dont go there 24/7 and u don't see the light is on, so if u forget it shows u :)
Here in Germany you'd typically have these indicators in light switches for apartment stairwells and so on, but not in people's homes. I guess usually you'd not forget where the light switch is in your own home.
I have one of those in my bedroom! It's very flickery though and sometimes does not turn on at all.
I think part of what I like so much about this channel is how Alec is just really unabashedly *himself*.
I like that he saves the bloopers for the credits instead of keeping it in the video. It seems more genuine than keeping it in to appear quirky or whatever it is.
Who else would he be? Jokes aside…The only times I’ve ever felt he was being less than genuine or putting on an act/playing a character of sorts is when he makes pre-written jokes. I forget what it was but at the intro of this one was an example…the acting like he was trying to figure out how to fix the problem that it isn’t no effort November anymore gives me that vibe. Not so much when he makes the comment about it being December but the pretending to be scrambling for a solution but…I can’t decide if I’m just picking up on his forcing it or if he’s just a really bad actor so we can sense his discomfort with doing those “scenes”. There’s some examples of this in the bloopers as well…though I think he’s gotten much better at not forcing those over time.
Having said ask that it doesn’t matter at all obviously because Idgaf and I’m not here for jokes and he never overindulges so It’s never an issue and the content I do watch for is always superb so he can act away afaic
0:07 🎉🎉🎉
@@Fee.1 I find that that kind of dorkiness is part of him being genuinely him. It's also so obviously an act that I can't take it as trying to actually appear genuine.
@@orangeapples that’s hilarious, people who like the goofs left in like it because it feels more human to them too. goes to show we all perceive things v differently
Fun fact, Neon indicator lights were used for sensors for some devices. They also used them as opto-couplers within old organs. I could be wrong on some of this but I may be right. I love these little Neon lights
In organs neons were used along with an RC network to create divide by two circuits (which you need for octaves).
Check out the Dekatron, a divide by ten circuit using neon. At college (in the early 1980s) they had some Geiger counters which used those both as the counter and the display. I haven't come across Neons being used as sensors but can believe it. In fact the Geiger Tube itself works using gas discharge.
Some early computers used Neon based logic. I read about a Soviet one where they had to put normal lights inside as well as it would work perfectly until they put the case covers on.
Opto couplers used with kidneys , livers and heart's is a fascinating subject... Its not everyday you get the opportunity to sell $26 worth of Frog's teeth.
Cool
Thank you for finally answering my childhood curiosity about my grandmother's nightlights that flickered very sporadically...until you turned the lights on.
11:45 You solved a 17-year-old mystery! I had a space heater (one of those oil-filled 'radiator' things) with a neon indicator. It would flicker constantly but if I turned on the desk light it would glow steady. I never followed up on finding out why (reasons) but now I know.
I would've assumed it was the house wiring.
Well, can you completely rule out the possibility of ghosts?
A bunch of neon bulb indicator lamp variants add a bit of mildly radioactive material to help initiate the arc. Get your initiating energy where you can I suppose!
@@KonamiKonami I actually did think that maybe the additional power drawn by the desk light might have been responsible. I just never really pursued the matter. A flickering neon light was of little consequence to me, despite the odd behavior.
This phenomena is related with the photoelectric effect. Essentially photons with more or less the wavelength (energy) of the photons that occurs in the electric discharge are more prone to free more electrons from the plasma, lowering the electrical resistance of the gas and improving the stability of the discharge.
Those novelty tourist bulbs are honestly really cool, haven't seen those before.
Really want to find out if they still make those, can't find anything yet, but not sure what key words to use
@@karlselewski5599, type in, "aerolux". They are a form of a Crookes tube.
And I thought I was risking it bringing back a 6" Christmas bauble in a budget flight hand-luggage!
i rrmb in the late 90s. they where a waste of a light socket but kinda neat
@@karlselewski5599 I found some on e-bay but not all of them run on 120Vac some are 220Vac.
I love how this channel always introduces me to some obscure, yet everyday, fascinating technology that I would've never put any attention into.
I love how you brought the power strip light and the photon affect into this. I had noticed that years ago. You answered your own question about the coding on the electrodes when you opened the bulbs envelope. It is a getter to assure there's no oxygen in the bulb. My experiments with those bulbs has led me to believe the design deliberately under drives the gases on the outside of the gap preventing the outside surfaces from glowing completely and stably. By raising the voltage you can almost get complete illumination before you get arcing in between the two electrodes and the imminent explosion. 😲😖🥺
P. S. Using a high voltage transformer low amperage and single side exciting the bulb gases you can of course get the whole lamp to Glow
Thats why Im a subscriber!
My mom has had these for decades, but I've never once thought about how they worked.
I believe that the coating on the electrodes is simply a getter material that is used to help remove all the oxygen from the lamp. That is why the coating turned white when exposed to air. I don’t think it has much at all to do with the flickering effect, but the imperfections in the coating do make the light emitted “prefer” some shapes over others. I believe that you are correct the pressure changes in the lamp are the reason it happens.
The getters we used in laser manufacture would be damaged instantly if heated in the presence of oxygen. It makes sense that they would just put material on the electrodes as a getter since the impurities of oxygen contaminated getter would actually help this effect.
I have a memory of my grandparents house having a power strip light that flickered! And it only did it in the dark! I was very confused, it felt like it was alive. Also never knew this type of light existed but have always loved the way it looks.
Nope. It's demons!
@@dotar9586 It's always the simpler explanation that is the correct one.
Please do a video on nixie tubes! I had those things as readouts on ancient equipment I used in the military. They looked awesome but also were a pain to replace when they failed. Would love to know more about them
If you miss them, nowadays you can buy a Nixie Clock; it's a clock made with modern electronics and Soviet Union era Nixie tubes as indicators. I have one with 4 tubes, made by Millclock in Ukraine that costs less than $ 200. Techmoan has reviewed at least 3 different Nixie clocks.
@@alvaros. Yea I've looked into them. Just not sure if I want to bite the bullet yet on one. They're very cool and certainly getting harder to come by. But that's a lot of money for what is just a clock at the end of the day 😅
Check out Techmoan’s channel. He’s done a number of videos on Nixie tubes.
check out Applied Science.
Yes, Nixie tube video please!
After watching this video I visited my mother, and realized the Mrs clause decoration she’s had my entire life is holding a candle with one of these bulbs. That bulb is over 30 years old and still going strong!
My uncle has a flame lamp going strong for something like 35-36 years!!!
@@franky2shoes660 my grandpa has one that has been going strong for 42 years and counting(it was always on, too!)!
I put flicker flame bulbs in a chandelier display when I worked at menards. The effect was underwhelming, they barely flickered. I’m guessing the light from all the other lighting displays helped them to run “properly.” Unrelated, a lady saw them and said “they’re kinda neat, but kinda dim. Do you have them in 60 watt?” I said, “no ma’am. That would look like an arc welder running in your living room”
😂😂
I do wish I could find some actual 40 and 60 watt LED bulbs for my (shaded) lamps and floodlights. I mean why not? The fixture is rated for that or more anyway
When I was a kid (early 90s), there was a mall near me that had these odd light fixtures all along one section of corridor that looked like old gas lanterns. They had this type of flicker bulb in them. It was the first time I had ever seen them, and I thought they were the coolest thing I had ever seen. I would stare at them every single time I visited that mall, which was about once a week. Had to get my arcade fix, right?! Watching this video instantly brought me back to my childhood. Thanks for the nostalgia kick!
I think you have to buy some decorative neon (gas-discharge) lamps, they are really beautiful but it is hard to find them these days...
I'm not looking to buy any, I was just saying where I had seen something similar in the past.@@SkinnyVampiress
I miss neon night-lights being a thing. It used to be easy to find them for JUST enough light to not trip or run into doors going down a hall at night to the bathroom, but also not ruin your night vision. Now modern night lights seem obsessed with being ultra-bright and stupid colors like cold-white or even laser-eye-death-blue.
I can reccomend one of those Himalaya salt lamps. The health claims are bs, but they give a very plesans night light.
GE NE-34 & AR-1 are some of my favorite bulbs :)
@Banter Maestro2 I know the exact light fixture you're talking about. My grandparents have a bunch of them scattered around their house and our vacation property, all going strong though a little yellow from age.
i have lots of these in my house as it came with the house
agggg Laser death blue. A while back I got one of those little folding speaker things that were like cheap. However I got the green one and what did it come with a power status LED when turned on that could light my entire room up neon blue.... After about six months I ended up changing the LED.
I find myself wanting to see part 2 of this video be a collab with the Slo-Mo guys. Both the flicker and of course the explosion would be great to watch at several thousand FPS.
EXACTLY my thought. Had to think of this when he was talking about the discharge fluctuations, or even the AC causing alternating glow. After the Vid with Medhi electronics in Slo-Mo has become kind of an interesting subject.
Agree!! I follow both and this video followed the latest SMG video on auto-play, CZcams knows it's right!
You read my mind
And Electro Boom to explain the flicker.
I have a Mighty Need!
I am dealing with the very real possibility of a family loss... and these videos help me cope with the feelings. It's like having a friend when the one or two (quality over quantity) I have are busy with their own life or work or whatever... so thank you for making these. Thank you for being fun and enjoyable to listen to. The snark is cute and fun, the information is good, your demeanor is friendly, and your sense of humor agrees with me. I appreciate all of it.
I know it's been three weeks, but I think, from all of us, we hope that your family member is alive and well.
@@liyifenn I cannot give good news. Things progressed and cancer did what it does. My mother will be missed. Thank you for your thoughts and wishes truly.
If you want to cover a GREAT candle replacement, there are these LED Candles that have a suspended plastic “flame” that is illuminated by the LED and wobbles around (maybe via a magnet, similar to those solar dancing statue things?)
Especially from a distance they are near indistinguishable.
Damn. Alec introducing us to another obscure kind of Christmas light that I can't live without and will become obsessed with for years.
Its not actually a Christmas light. My grandparents used to have a light fitted with these bulbs year round, and they're definitely not the kind of people to keep Christmas decorations up for a long time afterwards.
These aren't obscure? They're everywhere.
@@androiduberalles probably depends on where you live how common they are
@@ComradePhoenix I love how you use your grandparents as a sort of source, or explanation to prove your point. Yet none of us know them, and even if we did it wouldn't make your statement any more credible
@@conman1395 ok, ben shapiro wannabe.
"Through the magic of buying 10 of them" always makes me giggle.
edit: I'd love to see a high-speed camera version of that explosion.
yes, slo mo guys where are you?
Someone needs to get the slo-mo guys on this.
Yeah, someone get Gav and Dan in here!
I'll have to try that, 240V over hear should do a better job.
I've never watched something and so quickly decided, some one needs to get him a Red.
I love your annual festive light videos, I look forward to them every year, please keep making them!
Damn this unlocked a core memory, my grandma used to have lamps like these and they confused me greatly as a tiny lad.
My grandmother has one of these, and it amazed me as a kid. I studied that bulb for waaay too long, and loved seeing it displayed every Christmas. She still has it, with the original bulb still working. She said that when she moves from her house into an apartment, I can have that candle light. I will absolutely cherish it forever.
mine did to and some of my aunts i always wondered how they worked as i got older i kind of thought it worked like a neon indicator bulb cause of the color i was right
I noticed how my kid loves the Christmas tree lights, and when I observed him, memories of my own fascination with little coloured lights at that age as well. He does the same thing at a fireplace. It must be some kind of human condition related to light/fire.
@@ericmoeller3634 its because
a) the electrodes are huge and flat, and
b) there isn't quite enough power to illuminate the entire lamp
So it starts in some random place and wanders, just because there's always room left for it to wander. Run it hotter and the whole thing would light up, and it'd stop wandering.
@@tsm688 he already explained how they worked but than you very much for letting me know again i really appreciate it
We lived in Alaska when I was about 9, in the mid-70s. My mother broke out some new Xmas decorations the first year there, and among the stuff were some of these lamps. I remember just being captivated by how pretty I thought they were, as well as thinking they were very "warm" and comforting in some way. Very Xmassy and homey. There were other interesting things, like color wheels, and all these decorations were beautiful just toys to me. They lent a special beauty to our living room and the tree. We left them behind when we moved away, and I always missed them, especially these flickering "candle" bulbs. I'm glad that you will be able to retain your grandmother's light. If I still had my mom's light, I would still bring it out every Xmas, even though I never decorate or have a tree.
I've used flicker lights in candle holders for many years. I have one additional observation. As the lamps get quite old the flickering slows or even stops. And in old, I mean 5+ years.
Stops as in stays off, or stops as in the discharge becomes stable?
@@monkeywithocd we also have a pretty old one we use every christmas and the flickering can indeed stop as in it glows in a single, stable, spot for a while
Mine lamp is ~50 years old and it still works. However it flickers only around edges now. Do not know how it worked when it was new.
From what I've read myself it's a combination of a jacob's ladder-like convection effect as you mentioned and partially being underdriven. With the large area of the electrodes it's gotta be much easier to not have enough current to surround the electrodes in discharge.
I'd repeat the experiment with the multiple resistors but by opening the base of a flicker lamp and replacing the resistor with lower value ones to increase the current and see if it stops flickering.
My grandmother had a lamp that had or sort of "lantern" for the base. In the "lantern" was three candle lamps with flicker bulbs. Then on top of the whole thing, a normal bulb and shade. As a little kid I loved turning the flicker lights on and watching them. The 80's where very exciting.
I used to have a large upright freezer the same age as me (1971). For many years I wondered why the orange lamp on the door near the bottom flickered at night but not in the day. It had belonged to an uncle (who gave it to my parents, then it was mine, then I gave it to a church) and even when it was my uncle's in the late 70's it flickered in the dark. Must have always been an overdriven neon bulb.
The reason that flickering or even seemingly dead neon lamps will start working when they're externally lit is that the light photons creates enough excitement inside the lamp to get the gas discharge going again.
Even a tiny amount of external light stimulus is enough to get an unstable neon light stable. I've done experiments with dimly lit LEDs pointing at unstable neon lamps in switches, and they get stable. Seemingly dead neon lamps sometimes turn on as well, but they're usually very unstable.
Ah 1971, brings back memories, I was a Sophomore in high school, and for Christmas, my dad and I assembled a Revel®Apollo + Saturn V model that was nearly 3 feet tall and had hundreds of pieces❤. A few years ago my grandchildren & I (mostly grandchildren) assembled the Leggo version of the Saturn V with 1969 peices❤that they gave me as a gift.
@@GGigabiteM alec literally mentioned this
Fridge that only flickers during night.....i would have given that fridge to church too.
I found some old schematics for an automatic light switch which exploited this, so the idea is you balance the current through the thyratron (which is the same thing as a neon lamp but has three electrodes). And if tuned properly it can only turn on when there is enough light. So at night it is off, current don't flow through it which in turns make it enough to trigger another thyratron biased differently and it triggers a relay coil. And this switches the street light on. No semiconductors or transistors or anything :)
"things that are broken have a beauty of their own"
There was a tad of emotion in that line delivery.
We love you man
in japan, this idea is called "kintsugi" the beauty of broken things
This is my 2nd favorite type of flicker flame bulb. My favorite kind was probably designed for the theater. They were in the chandeliers at Tavern on the Green and had (I think) a magnet below the filament that caused it to move inside the bulb. Really great illusion; a friend got some and I think they were like $20 each* and lasted about 6 months in a powder room fixture
*$20 is how I remember it. Point is they were pretty damn expensive
Look up the Balafire bulb, I bet it was one of those. They are no longer in production. I got one from Spencer's at the mall in the early 1990's and it still works. I used it all the time when I first got it, and all throughout college, and now I just pull it out to show it to people now and then. It's not rated to last very long, no idea how mine is still working fine after almost 30 years.
@@joutoob9 You can actually connect some resistance in series with it, to drive it a little less bright but it will increase its lifespan a lot. At half brightness you may expect maybe 10x longer operation.. And if it eventually wont start you just shock it with a piezo element from a lighter, it will clear some contacts inside enough to start glowing again, it works with even totally black neon lamps so should work for bigger ones I think...
Thank you for these videos. Love watching them all.
I do enjoy your recurring “thru the magic of buying N of them” bit, along with explanations of how things fail & where to find niche bits of electronics in the wild.
Same, I would like to add that for some reason it's always surprising. I guess he just makes things feel really special, so there's no way he could get even more! Lol
There is a german Wikipedia page for these lamps (no other language tho) that describes how the flicker is created:
Translated
"Flickering candles are lamps that imitate the flickering light of candles. They are specially designed glow lamps with an enlarged cathode surface. This consists of partially oxidized, uncleaned sheet iron, which is why the glow light only partially covers the cathode surface. The positive ions, accelerated by the cathode fall, hit the cathode locally and change its surface. This changes the burning voltage slightly, after which the glow discharge shifts to another area with a lower burning voltage. In normal glow lamps, the iron electrodes are cleaned by cathode sputtering before the lamp is completed. That is why the glow light is evenly distributed there."
interesting, seems plausible to me, lets see if mr. connections sees this
This wouldn't explain the quick white oxidation
@@Evan---- what if there is some metal ion sputtering occurring between the plates, and when he busted it open, it rapidly oxidized?
@@Hardwyre iron has a distinct rusty colored oxidation
@@johnmeyer8078 zinc and aluminium oxidise white, any chance it could be one of these?
Back in 1989 my mother purchased a Christmas ornament that uses this technology, and I just realized it today after seeing this video. Essentially it's an ornament that connects into the bulb socket on a string of old filament Christmas lights. It looks like a little fireplace, and the log inside flickers orange whenever the lights are plugged in. As a kid I always assumed that it was just a regular filament bulb, but it's lasted almost 35 years! It only makes sense that this is the kind of tech that keeps it working.
6:22 your deadpan delivery and witty writing always get me. great vid as always
I had one of these but it didn't flicker. It was flame shaped and was supposed to flicker, but it was perfectly stable. I guess the accidentally built it correctly!
I worked in a small office building that had these bulbs in coach light style sconces in the hallway as the only source of light. It gave off such a creepy vibe when going to the restroom, kinda like trying to traverse an Italian restaurant.
I can picture this clearly. Grazie!
I love that my reaction to the Italian restaurant comment is pretty much "what are you talking ab-*thinks about it for a second*-Ok actually yeah what's up with that?"
Italian restaurants are almost as scary as walking through a peach orchard. You just never know what's gonna happen, right?
@@lebowskiunderachiever3591 are you referring to being able to picture clearly the hallway or the Italian restaurant? Choose your answer carefully as I'm half Italian.... And remember the media always portrays Italians in such a bad and stereotypical manner....
* gestures angrily in pasta *
I am so glad that you have finally put an end to my curiosity surrounding the flickering light on the power strip under my desk. Totally doesn't flicker when my lights are on or during the day. Love this!
I never knew why the lights inside the switches on my old power strips would flicker or just act weirdly, but it makes perfect sense now. Thank you, Technology Alec Man!
Oh my god! I saw this bulb in my friend's house when I was 5 years old (around 20 years ago). I distinctly remember it because I was so mesmerized by the flickering and I asked my dad later if we could buy 'a bulb that looked like fire', but he couldn't understand what I was saying, since such bulbs were not so common in India. Then I forgot about it, and didn't bother to look it up or find out how it worked. Your video brought back that memory and as a bonus I now know how it works. Thanks for the video man!
Since you've mentioned the power strip, I've always wondered why they sometimes flicker like those candle lamps. Now I know 😂
For me it was realization that they might flicker only in complete darkness. I have one power strip that flickers but not if the lights are on in the room. I thought I might be crazy or I might only be able to perceive the flicker in darkness, but it didn't seem to me like the problem was my eyes. But the stuff about external photons helping with neon reach it's excited state make so much sense.
I've got an old chest freezer with a power indicator that does the same, and I've always wondered why. Now I know!
same some of my lightswitches have an indicator that flickers
Yes the neon lights can be excited by light which I think it was a Mr. Carson's lab video had a test instrument with calibrated neon bulbs! And big Clive made some flickering neon indicator bulb fairy lights.
I didn't know about the opposite making them stop flickering but it makes sense.
Thank you so much for all your effort you put in the content you share freely here. It's cute, refreshing, authentic and interesting.
Also glad I get to know you a bit via this way. Take care and have a wonderful 2023 !
One of the most informative videos on all of CZcams! I've wondered for YEARS why so many of my power strips would flicker when the lights are off, but seem to be on steady when I turn the lights on.
We run gas discharges in the lab I work in, and a stable discharge is fairly sensitive to the gas pressure. They flicker both if the pressure is too high or too low (ususally too high, in our case). And like you said, some gas mixtures are much more prone to flickering than others (usually ones with water vapor, in our case). Not sure what the physical mechanism of the flicker is though!!
I saw a couple of these in wall lamps in a hotel years ago, and then got a closer look at them again this past fall and realized how weird and impossible they looked. I had no clue how to describe them to look them up, and had resigned myself to just never knowing how they worked. Seeing this video was a wonderful surprise, and I'm glad to finally have an answer
I’m weird like that too! Curiousity is the best trait.
I've always wondered about these little indicator lamps. When I was a kid in the late 90s/early 2000s, I do remember seeing them more and kind of miss them.
"Sometimes things that are a little bit broken, have a beauty all their own."
I think he just summed up every long-term relationship.
You were asking for expertise about these neon bulbs, Alec. Not mine, but Big Clive used the "Vise of Knowledge" on one of these and also had it oxidize to white in no time when exposed to air. He gave lots of technical explanations on how the flicker works in the video from about five years ago titled 'Inside a cheap Neon flicker-flame lamp from eBay'
Of course Big Clive has covered this! Why didn't I think of that?
@@TechnologyConnections Yeah, but you exploded TWO neon bulbs in your video, and Clive didn't. LOL
I tracked down the video and it seemed we've arrived at pretty much the same conclusions - although more resistance did make the spots that glow smaller so the test I did with the indicators may have just been totally irrelevant. Then again, that may be compounded with the electrode coating so... who knows! It's weird how little is known about these things, but they're still being manufactured so clearly somebody's got the info out there
@@TechnologyConnections That coating seems to have bit like getter in vacuum tubes.
@@TechnologyConnections - You should be careful, Big-Neon doubtlessly have powerful connections - I bet this goes right to the top!
Yes! Do nixie tubes!!! I would love your take on their history and how they work.
Literally almost January and I wouldn’t have questioned a thing if he said it was still November
This video connected so many things from the past: those old power strips, the lights at the sanctuary and the old indicator lights found in most electronics "that must not be left connected or otherwise you are wasting millions".
Thank you.
Old electronics were kind of bad about that. Newer ones not so much.
Your videos are by far some of the best constructed and professional looking on CZcams. A quick comparison with Connextras shows just how much work you put into achieving that.
Please consider making a fly on the wall video showing the path from idea to completed video.
I know it’s a little off brand but it could form the backdrop to a video on some of the technology you use.
I’m sure I can’t be the only one who wants to learn from one of the greats.
It might be experimentally interesting to try running one of the flicker candle lights from dc power,
to see if the alternating nature of the current and uneven coating between the two electrodes is behind its behavior.
But also just to see what it would do with only one cathode illuminated
I was thinking this too!
OR try a hair dryer. I grew up in south florida where it is always the same temperature every day, all year, lol .... I saw these bulbs stick. They would light in one spot only, sometimes "break loose" and the plasma move, but as soon as it would relight that particular section, it would simply, again, stop flickering ... maybe as the bulb ages, certain place on the filament changes to be comfortable conducting in that spot continually ... so, maybe it was the constant heat making the older lamp able to glow with stability ... you described the heat thing inside tge bulb, and your explanation requires changing dynamic heat fluctuations, suggesting to be that the light might work better when the ambient temperature is cooler
I think it really has something to do. A couple of years ago I made a very long experiment with some neon lamps to see how they aged with different kind of voltage supply. For over a year I connected two neon lamps (I think the model is IN-3, those are DC because it has a cathode that is supposed to light up) direct to mains power through a resistor, two being driven with pulsating DC, and other two with filtererd DC. The AC powered lamps started flickering erratically (and the flicker was altered by light being projected into the lamp!). All the lamps were driven with some overcurrent to produce the aging and only the ones powered with AC showed the flickering, the other ones just dimmed a bit. It wasn't really a serious experiment, but kinda interesting to do.
@@ikastolero the trapped condition inside the lamp, if two columns equally heated, one then theother,then the first one, etc. That condition would be different from pulsed DC that implies a high voltage to breakdown or whatever the terminology, one colum only, within the trapped space, thus pulsed DC would make one column of plasma heat, vs. AC implied each alternate phase is sufficient voltage to breakdown, would heat both, one or other always on, compared with just one blinking faster than your eye, at the rate of the dc pulse ... but, truly, long ago they taught only three states of matter, while today, you have cold plasma. How does that work, you might want to learn ... imagine future crystal contraption you could hold in your hand, yet the crystal produces a high energy stream of e ... similar to that story about the christmas tree light, or using UV to shine into the bulb, increase of e in there ... the crystal stream of so called particles would or could or if, in some future, you create the ions without raising the temperature so much, like a Cold Plasma Light saber-like gizmo ... yeah, Cold Plasma is what advice Dustin Hoffman would get, if he were to graduate today 😉👍
Fun story: My mom's church, growing up, had what appeared to be a candle at the 40' ceiling peak. They called it the "eternal flame" and it was supposed to represent the eternal love of Christ. I asked how they got up there to light it, and the pastor said it was gas powered.
A few years later, exploring the church's breaker boxes (because that's the kind of kid I was) I found a breaker, that was bolted in the on position, marked "eternal flame".
Long story short, it was a flicker flame, that because of the height and fixture, looked enough like a real flame to fool everyone. And apparently it never died.
In other news:
1. I bet I have more flicker flame in frequent use in my home than anyone else
2. Ever seen those "ball o fire" bulbs?
A spam bot has copied your comment and is using it to bait people.
that's such a gimmicky thing to do for an actual religion lol
@@snerttt religion is a gimmick in itself
Where I used to live, a public building had the original gas luminaires, except long before I was born they were converted to use electricity.
Perhaps, such was the case at your church, as well.
It's possible that they confused "gas discharge" for "gas powered". Either way, they knew it wasn't a non-consuming flame.
These videos are solid gold. Thank you for making them.
A really great and in-depth explanation of the technology! Thank you.
I love how you're becoming more comfortable with electricity over time. I still remember way back when you were spouting safety disclaimers instead of just testing stuff like this for yourself :)
In a couple years he’ll go full ElectroBoom
@@JoelFroese This is the way.
idk he just didn't want viewers killing themselves maybe.
@@Hansengineering We are a dubious and unpredictably silly lot. It's defensible. ;o)
It's OK it's OHSA approved.
Thank you, Alec, for channeling your inner ElectroBoom and showing us an exploding neon lamp!! 🙂
I've committed this error and exploded one neon when I was a teen, and was on worst way possible, so near the main board, exploded so violently due high current! 😂
I only wish it was shot at a higher frame rate for some really good slowmosion (not a spelling error, just a portmanteau of slowmotion and explosion) footage.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching it.
Cool how he breaks things for science, and also the ability to make an extremely popular video even when it's about tiny wee ornamentsal lamps is something l respect and envy. If I could somehow make a video with almost a million views I would happily break my mother's teeth if that was what it took.
Need a Technology Connections, ElectroBoom, and Slow Mo Guys collab.
Reminded me more of Photonicinduction
i absolutely Fn love this channel, thanks for doin what u do man its much appreciated
You have just solved a year-old mystery for me! I have a multistrip with a signal light that flickers at night and it has puzzled and worried me so much that I finally stuck it in a drawer, concerned that it was defective.
Yeah, I've been thinking the same! Thought it was a loose wire or something
I love what you do. It's almost a tradition to hear you talk about Christmas lights. Don't stop!
A great effort for full effort December.
Highly informative as always.
love your channel.
My grandmother had these decades ago. So fun to watch!
11:55 - THANK YOU!!!!! I thought I was losing my mind when my old power strip would stop flickering when I turned on the light. I never understood what was going on, other than magic! haha
These are still the choice for community theater productions where real flame in a lantern is a no-no. "Sometimes, things that are a little bit broken, have a beauty all their own." Profound. You have a Merry Christmas.
As with many things in theatre: distance hides a multitude of sins
There's a modern version coming up, realistic enough it actually fools people
I had one of these bulbs as a nightlight and was mesmerized by it as a kid. I found one in a dollar store recently and instantly bought it. Brought back a wave of memories, but I kept wondering how it works. (I have a nixie clock and get the general idea, just the flicker part was a mystery) Thanks for the video
Loving your channel!! Our family loves your awesome info on all the tech around us!!!
"Sometimes things that are a little bit broken have a beauty of their own."
Beautiful closing statement there.
Reminds me of that traditional Japanese art where broken bowls are fixed not by removing / hiding the breakage lines, but instead, highlight them. That is, "Kintsugi".
I really felt it when he said that.
@@spugintrntl Alec gets me, he really gets me!!!
That Discovery Zone shirt hit me with a ton of nostalgia. Man, I know those places were hella unsanitary but crawling through them was fun as heck.
As soon as I noticed it I had to check if I was alone. Glad to see I'm not the only one that caught it
Absolutely! Going down those roller-slides was always my favorite 😂
DZ!
It's exercise for your immune system.
The 1,000 gallon ball washing tank in the back says it all. . .
Well, the good thing with this channel is that you always discover something new every time you watch a video, even if you though you knew the subject
I’m glad you made this. I have a power distribution box from the 1990s. More than one switch has gone “flickery,” and I wondered if the unit was failing, but it’s just the bulbs in the switches wearing out.
Kudos to the DZ shirt and changing the background shelf lights to Christmas colors. I’m conflicted about this comment because I don’t really want to seem like I’m highlighting that I noticed these two points, but I decided to post it because I know Alec pays that kind of attention to detail and want to let him know so are we. Keep up the snark!
What does the DZ signify?
@@RossOlsonDotCom Discovery Zone
As I was watching this I looked down at the power bar my computer is plugged into. It's in the dark and I realized it's flickering. I shone my phone flashlight at it and it stopped. Gotta say, that was a neat 'play along at home' moment. :D
There's one in my basement that flickers even while lit. I didn't know why, and I accidentally just learned from this video! It makes sense, because the switch has been on for at least a decade.
who knew that i would find a video on decorative lamps so explaining and reassurring?
I have a power strip that flickers, and i always thought it was kinda sketchy (cause in my mind flickering = bac contact somewhere) but i've had it for probably 8 years or so by now (not new when i got it, already flickered) and it's always been reliable.
I like the glow from neon indicator lamps a lot more than LEDs. They hit that sweet spot of being easy to read but not annoyingly bright, and I find the natural reddish color soothing.
Nixie tubes are cool, but VFD (vacuum florescent displays) are far more common in today's appliances! You could also cover magic eye tubes, if you do a whole video dedicated to unique indicators!
One company actually made amplifiers out of VFD’s, and they work really well! They’re basically triodes.
@@5roundsrapid263 I've seen a superhet radio constructed entirely out of tuning-eye tubes (6E5s mostly I think). Those likewise are triodes with an indicating structure added. If I recall correctly, there were 7 or 8 such eye tubes in the radio, and they displayed differently as you tuned the radio.
Fran Blanche has done some great videos on weird historic indicator tubes
I believe he's already done a VFD video.
@@thomaswilliams2273 what is VFD Video?
I spent a month in an induced coma, and next to me, the ventilator had one of those indicator lights on it. As I was coming out of it, the ICU delirium made me believe the flickering glow was some sort of magical liquid, and I had vivid dreams/delusions of stealing the fluid with a syringe, and selling it in some exotic bazaar.
Did they give you a fair price for your magical fluids?
@@Hunnter2k3 I bought some for a few bucks, but it didn't come out of no lightbulb
Holy shit that is wild. I'm really glad you're okay now!
Potion Seller, I am going into battle, and I need your strongest potions!
@@ShallowVA In a perfect world, men like me would not exist - but this is not a perfect world.
My father left being a Santa sleigh decoration that has this kind of lamp, It's very nostalgic watching it flicker in the dark. I was just wording how they work and couldn't find any answers and now here it is. Thanks!
Can't believe I clicked on the video and watched the entire thing about faulty lamps. Kudos man, you've got a way of catching and retaining audience attention!
Extra notes from the captions at the very end of the video:
So, of course *after* I made the video I find out Big Clive covered these a while back.
I mean, that seems so obvious in hindsight and why didn't I look for that?
Although we're mostly on the same page - he also thought there was an insulating coating on one side but destroying the lamp put that into question.
However, a higher resistance did make the glowing spots smaller so that probably has something to do with it.
Anyway, Happy Decemberween!
2:36. electro boom moment
I love this channel and the retro atmosphere of each episode 👍🏼
The little 'aside' of "it only flickers in the dark, because external photons are helping to ionise the gas" was the level of detail that makes these videos so worthwhile. As a retiree who has spent a lifetime enjoying understanding stuff (maths, physics, chemistry and computer science at A'level gave me a wonderful grounding in 'understanding the world') I just loved this video and the 'Solar Windmill' Radiometer video.
I'm almost 42 years old, and ever since I was a little kid, I have always loved these bulbs! The last batch I got, several years ago, was apparently defective with the electrodes not being close enough to each other. They wouldn't illuminate unless I thumped the bulb. Very cool video!
The turning white when exposed to air definitely points to barium or similar reactive metal, as the barium "getter" in a vacuum tube will behave in exactly the same way. The "dark effect" (flickering in the absence of outside light source) in some neon lamps was caused by an increase in the required ionization voltage. Some neon lamps incorporated a small amount of a radioactive isotope to pre-ionize the gas, stabilize the starting voltage, and eliminate the "dark effect".
Hmm. Yeah, check for Thorium.
@@BixbyConsequence Why should he?
@@BixbyConsequence Ni-63 or Kr-85 was more commonly used. Sometimes, a radium-doped paint was applied externally to the envelope when used in non-visual (voltage regulator/reference) applications. These need careful handling/disposal, as the paint is often flaking off...
@@bobweiss8682 The material in these is usually just sodium since it's dirt cheap and contributes a pleasing yellow.
Thanks so much. I knew NONE of this already. Very interesting!
This perfectly answers a question I forgot I had when I noticed one of our older power strip's indicator light flicker in the dark a while back. Glad to know there's nothing inherently wrong with the device! Thanks!
I've got a flicker on my power strip that's powering the equipment I'm watching you on. Just turned off the lights above my workbench and it did the same thing yours did! That's awesome! Merry Christmas and stuff to you and your family!