Huzzah! The next video in the lantern... series?

Thank you for the video! I finally realized what the thing I stumbled upon a few years ago in Jamaica Plain, MA was. And yup, those gas lamps are somehow still around - https://www.jamaicaplainnews.com/2014/05/21/jamaica-plain-has-15-working-gas-street-lamps/1745

There's a myriad of other words to use instead! 😂

George M1GEO

Grew up using these during power outages. All the memories..

these lantern videos are real good. I've enjoyed all of the information packed in. looking forward to the gasoline lamp episode! (I bought my first coleman just over a month ago!)

I learned a lot of new stuff from this video, awesome. I have allways found the camping lights fascinating, never owned or operated one though. I think I heard back then the little white bag thing, that light up, were made of asbestos, and that's why they somehow disappeared, at least here in Denmark. Also, I love the subtitles at the end, that's why I keep them on, just for your videos. 😁

Because Why-Nerd

The "two bus problem" still plagues us today. This is where the bus you're waiting for is running very late, and the following bus is very early - often the second is immediately behind the first, or just a few minutes behind. This is common on heavily-used routes during heavy traffic, because the first bus is doing double duty of fighting traffic and picking up more passengers than usual. But the second bus has an abnormally low passenger load, usually seeing empty stops, and so can cruize through the rush hour traffic. The solution, of course, is to design stops for the second bus to catch up and pass the first. But this is illogical when viewed from most perspectives, from scheduling the buses to designing the bus stops - since if the first bus is filling up, then there are passengers at the stop for the second bus to get. So the second one just tails the first from that point.

Stephen Gillie

Alec's videos usually meander like a river through a countryside of different intellectual and technological fields. They often remind me of the Connections (and Connections² and Connections³) series too - and sometimes even The Secret Life Of Machines.

Stephen Gillie

This is a really fascinating episode, and beautifully made. Thanks so much for making it, as it pulls together a bunch of history I did and didn’t know all together! Ewen

Ewen McNeill

Here's a little rabbit hole you can dive down if you wish. In Scotland James 'Paraffin' young developed the shale mine and processing equipment to extract shale oil which can be refined down to paraffin or kerosene, being for the purposes here near enough the same. our little village of Tarbrax was one of the centres. Purely by coincidence I had a dual fuel 1956 Ferguson tractor (Little Grey Fergie) which would start on petrol but could run on cheaper paraffin/ kerosene once it was warmed up. Paraffin is now very difficult to get here, which is odd as it was the epicentre and the technology went on to become the oil industry. I've gone the other way and now run electric vehicles. Thank you for your explanations, Born in a rural area I remember various kinds of oil lamp, Tilley lamp and propane lamps through the last 60 years or so.

Jim Hewlett

https://manchesterhistory.net/architecture/2000/gasworks.html There is an old gasometer converted into apartments in Dublin, Ireland. Pretty impressive building to see

I found the "forced my lute" quote in an online newspaper archive provided by my library. http://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ GT3017478470/NCNP?u=kcls_main&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=78a1cf6f

I'm pleasantly surprised by this lantern series and maybe in a future episode you can explain how someone can have a "lantern jaw!" Anyway it reminds me of James Burke's late 1970s documentary series "Connections" which did an enlightening segment on coal gas lighting and how it led to the modern chemical industry, especially in Germany.

Mark Hesse

I love my Aladdin lamp. It does have another downside you didn't mention(or probably would not have discovered yet), it needs fresh kerosene. After sitting in the lamp 6 months it will not function properly. Whereas older kerosene in a regular lamp will burn fine.

Paul Malloy

This series is so great! Please keep them coming!

Jennifer Holz

I *may* have recommended that to you. Not 100% sure though, but am a big Schivelbusch fan. While his railway time books are also fascinating, I think his best work is Tastes of Paradise, which is a social history of drugs and stimulants like coffee, tea, beer, etc. The chapter on bar counters, covering the transition from an inn being a place where the host and customer shared a common space together to bars which divided the two and turned the ritual into a transaction is particularly good. Both Tastes of Paradise and The Railway Journey are both good for at least 4 video topics, I'd wager. I'm a sucker for any discussion on how time was standardized and went from a weird local, community based thing to an international system. (BTW, read The Railway Journey and you'll realize how fortunate for us all that the most frothy area of technological innovation when Einstein was working as a patent clerk was standardizing time between rail stops!)

drewbot

I appreciate your using the word plethora, it really means a lot to me.

Kevin Tessner

While I am not great at checking messages, I will admit that I've ignored yours because I don't accept sponsorships. I'm much happier keeping the channel entirely community-supported.

Technology Connections

dude, check your messages! ?

Well done.

Oh, right - burn away the mantle before use. The fragility of mantles in my memory makes a lot more sense, after your explanation that they're heavy metal ash. Also don't breathe that. The Aladdin lamp uses jet technology - heat exiting a chimney, creating a vacuum that feeds itself. Fun fact: So is a nuclear power station's cooling tower, hence the funny saddle-like shape. The constriction drives airflow.

Stephen Gillie

Electric light being around long before it replaced gas light - and needing to be "tamed" sounds very similar to LEDs being around for decades before recently replacing other lighting methods - after being "tamed" from sterile hospital shades and into warm and friendly shades.

Stephen Gillie

There's a movement to convert cars to run off wood gas. Had a buddy who was into that, as part of a prepper/offgrid boondoggling lifestyle. Just like coal gas is made by baking coal into coke - wood gas is made by baking wood into charoal. Minecraftian! And the internal combustion engine can run on a variety of fuels. The original Honda motorcycles ran on turpentine. Not sure if birtue trees make good wood gas.

Stephen Gillie

Incandescent illumination *requires* impartial combustion, for those particles to glow? Mind-blowing concept.

Stephen Gillie

Aaah. Memories of Tilley Lamps when camping with Dad as a kid! 😍

George M1GEO

I haven't placed it yet, no worries there! I have a lot to do, still

Technology Connections

Aha! We have an answer! And "or broke my glasses" would mean sometimes it did even more than break the seal. Shoulda just googled "lute disambiguation" I guess. But crowdsourced knowledge for the win!

Technology Connections

Yay! More lantern fun. Apparently Lute is a material used seal your alchemy/mad science equipment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lute_(material), so "broke my lute" meaning that while distilling, it busted the seal and started spewing gas into the room.

Timothy Post

Just a heads up that the card didn't pop for the limelight video (I work for a YouTube channel and we frequently have card problems so I'm hyper aware of it now)

Tashlin Familiy

Wonder how easy it would be to find a carbon arc lamp to do a video on...

Emily Elam