alt.hn

7/14/2026 at 9:26:36 PM

Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y-9GbsS9Fg

by kadohg

7/22/2026 at 8:11:01 PM

I wish I could just buy one of these as a commercial product. I'll never be able to make this and it's too cool to not be able to buy.

by BugsJustFindMe

7/22/2026 at 8:42:23 PM

Maybe someone that has seen this first hand can chime in but I strongly suspect the real-life effect viewed with naked eye is much more disappointing compared to what is shown in this video. Real physics ain't need to get them likes and subscribes.

by avian

7/22/2026 at 7:28:10 PM

If you've never seen neon up close, plasma is such an incredible light source. It's like the light is just floating being emitted from empty space. I took a neon workshop a few years ago, and it became clear why people are still willing to painstakingly make these signs - there is really nothing comparable to them, they're like magic

by cush

7/22/2026 at 6:35:51 PM

I wish these could be made with something non toxic. Having one on my desk to shake would be a great fidget spinner.

by post_break

7/22/2026 at 8:23:30 PM

I suspect eutectic liquid InGa alloys would work, they stop wetting the glass when you are under vacuum. Although mercury is safe in the tube, just don't break the glass.

by s0rce

7/22/2026 at 8:16:30 PM

To put it in perspective, people used to consume mercury-based medicine. I'm sure if the glass is thick enough, the risk of a spill (and your health) will be generally managed.

by gwbas1c

7/22/2026 at 8:49:48 PM

People used to do a lot of stupid stuff. If you live alone and are conscious of the risk, sure, this is not a terribly dangerous item if you're safe about it. If you live with pets or children, it's entirely sensible to be concerned about the risk. A mercury spill can seep between the floorboards and contaminate your house with volatile mercury vapors for years to come if not properly managed.

by dandelany

7/22/2026 at 6:53:16 PM

Just drink a little bit at a time to buoys up an immunity.

by janderson215

7/22/2026 at 2:59:31 PM

for a moment I thought this was going to be about arc-lights in the 1800s that mechanically touch electrodes and then draw apart

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_lamp

it's amazing how far we've come

think about Benjamin Franklin twenty-five years before Declaration of Independence naming the first "battery" (out of the concept of lined-up artillery) by connecting a series of lynden jars (basically capacitors) - he also invented the concept of +/- positive and negative

now we've got space telescopes and probes leaving the solar system

imagine what's coming in another 300 years

by ck2

7/22/2026 at 3:08:08 PM

> naming the first "battery" (out of the concept of lined-up artillery)

That's an amazing fun fact.

by ambicapter

7/22/2026 at 3:57:13 PM

Another fun fact is that it was impossible to deduce from any of Ben Franklin's experiments what material was transferred and what material remained in place to give rise to "charge" as we think of it. So he picked a convention that we've continued to use even after we learned that his negative charges were the material that gets transferred by friction.

by throwway120385

7/22/2026 at 4:26:40 PM

somewhat more "fun" and impressive (despite useless) are "Franklin Bells" which way before anyone figured out electric motors, was the first example of electricity to mechanical energy

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_bells

of course incredibly crude

(imagine showing a paperclip motor to someone in 1750 https://player.vimeo.com/video/120255518 )

but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly he bears the original sin of owning slaves EVEN AS AN ABOLITIONIST and didn't free them until after his death (via will) - it's more than a little f-ed up

by ck2

7/22/2026 at 8:21:24 PM

You can opt out of electricity, various shaped stoves, the USA, and his other stuff to live out your moral superiority.

Also you may freely ignore his change of stance, the laws and norms of the time, etc

by liveoneggs

7/22/2026 at 5:47:41 PM

> but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly ..

Some people can't help themselves from bringing irrelevant facts to the conversation.

by Andrew_nenakhov

7/22/2026 at 7:03:24 PM

I don't think it's irrelevant that a brilliant man like Benjamin Franklin may not have been able to achieve as much as he unmistakably did WITHOUT the heavy assistance of forced slave labor in his life, from cradle to grave.

Pretending like these things can be separated is ignorance. Ignoring its brutality does a disservice to our history and that man's legacy

by bensmoif

7/22/2026 at 5:44:16 PM

People are better judged by the mores of their time, not our time.

Besides, without Franklin, there would be no United States, the free-est country in history.

by WalterBright

7/22/2026 at 7:24:25 PM

Slavery was immoral during Franklin's time too, Walter. Many, many people of the time understood this. Even Franklin himself, hypocrite though he was, came around to it.

by krapp

7/22/2026 at 7:42:24 PM

I understand that. I also know that half the country thought slavery was ok, and made it clear they would not join the union if it was abolished.

by WalterBright

7/22/2026 at 7:54:32 PM

So what? That doesn't affect the morality of slavery one bit. Subjective and relative moral questions do exist, but slavery isn't one of them.

Likewise, Ben Franklin being a founding father doesn't somehow balance the scales in that regard. The existence of the United States doesn't retroactively make slavery ok.

by krapp

7/22/2026 at 8:43:18 PM

What is moral and what isn't changes with the times. For example, blaspheming could get you murdered by the state in medieval times. The colonies had different views of morality, especially religious morality. It was immoral to work on the Sabbath. It was immoral to have sex before marriage.

The Founders saw fit to abolish the nobility, and disassociated religion from government. We've forgotten what an enormous leap both of those were (each of the colonies had an establishment of religion). I've seen endless documentaries on the founding of the country, and there's no mention of either of these.

Half of the colonies did abolish slavery. But, again, if it was demanded of the other half, the Union would never have happened.

Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington all held slaves.

I am certainly not advocating slavery. I'm merely pointing out that people should be judged on the morality of their times, not today's morality. If we judged past people by our modern standards, they would all be execrable people.

by WalterBright

7/22/2026 at 6:06:03 PM

Plenty of people at the time thought slavery was evil. Franklin was even one of them, calling it "cancer." He said this while still owning slaves, which is rather peculiar, but people are complicated.

by wat10000

7/22/2026 at 7:08:12 PM

In this century we have a word for that kind of talk by slaveholders who professed some longing for abolition (Franklin. Jefferson, Washington, John Jay) but did not really wanna be inconvenienced: trolling.

by bensmoif

7/22/2026 at 8:04:06 PM

Trolls do things for the LOLs. They are motivated by humor. Someone who wants rules for others but breaks those rules personally is better referred to as a hypocrite.

And while he did have a sense of humor (I hear that daylight savings time was just a joke), I don't think that is why he had slaves. He kept them because they were useful to him, and the moment he died they were no longer useful. The slaves owned by others were never useful to him, so they should be freed immediately.

by fhdkweig

7/22/2026 at 6:05:45 PM

Yeah no, Norway and a few others are the free-est country in history, just because someone declares US is "free" doesn't make it true, we disappear citizens all the time, police can seize your property without cause, government can seize your land for datacenters and women lose more and more rights every year

Again, Franklin knew slavery was wrong, literally campaigned to end it for that reason, yet did it himself for decades in the meanwhile, not a difficult horror to grasp in any time

by ck2

7/22/2026 at 7:29:53 PM

I consider freedom to include the free market. Norway has a mixed economy, due to its extensive regulation.

While it operates as a free-market country, the Norwegian government holds large ownership stakes in strategic industries, including petroleum, hydroelectric power, telecommunications, and banking.

Experts often characterize the Norwegian economy as a blend of private enterprise, state ownership, and social welfare that provides high standards of living.

(Cribbed from google)

by WalterBright

7/22/2026 at 5:11:29 PM

Franklin also invented the lightning rod, something which we take for granted these days.

by helterskelter