Hurricane lanterns (part one?)

As a constructive tip, I think your storytelling has too many asides (and asides to the asides), and it would be much clearer if you rearranged the script into pure chronological order. For example in this video, you told the stories of many lanterns as backstories (asides) to other lanterns, which meant the timeline was jumping back and forth a lot, making it more confusing.

David H

I lost it at Dietz Nuts. Out of the blue...

This video was more pun-packed than it needed to be. #blessed

I'm looking forward to the thorium content.

Jeremy

ngl, the baha blast lantern bit forced me to pause the video and wince for a good 30 seconds

another thumbs up for the t-shirt here. The test card (in HD these days) still gets used by the BBC - mostly internally, but I think it still makes it on air from time to time.

Martin Deutsch

Hi, Alec! I've been a patron for a long time. Wanted to say that you and my phonetically similarly named partner Alex have very similar taste in humor and I wanted to share this video they have been obsessed woth in case you hadn't seen it: https://youtu.be/KZfq9amWaJg

Sunchild

Perhaps an interesting adjacent follow up for part 2 of this video would be the “safety lamp”, which allowed an open-flame lantern to be used in coal mines without igniting flammable gas pockets. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_lamp

Jonathan Austin

The writing and timing on this one was some of his best yet, his writing has always been good but he's getting so good at comedic timing to match.

Well, if by "modern" you mean 30 years ago. Most makers of mantles switched from thorium to yttrium back in the 90s. (Unfortunately the newer ones aren't nearly as good as the old ones made with thorium oxide. They produce much dimmer and yellower light.)

tim1724

Maybe you can include the petromax lamp in the follow up video. Pretty interesting you need to pump up the lamp with air and preheat it

sand500

"Dietz Nuts" Alright, I came to up my pledge just for that.

TJ

I love this! I got a Dietz cold blast lantern because (1) they're interesting and (2) in case of power outages. My mom has dead air lanterns that we would use for that. But the Aladdin lamp you showed reminds me of gas lamps. We used them when camping (and they're also still in use in some parts of Boston, MA, actually, as street lights). I never saw a flame so I always wondered how they worked.

Ben

I love your t-shirt!!! I spent so many hours as a kid looking at that picture waiting for the BBC programming to start :)

Trude Gentenaar

Fun fact, modern incandescent mantles (e.g. for camping lanterns) are slightly radioactive as they contain thorium.

nobody

If I hadn't already been a fan "Dietz Nuts" would have made me one

Derek S Rose

Hot coffee on dietz nuts gotta hurt

Jonathan

Table's first burn mark! HAHA

Jason Wellband

I wonder if the pre-heating was based on on the idea of needing paraffin vapour, rather than liquid. Assuming they even understood that at that point.

Chris Crowther

Using a kerosene heater in the winter, the amount of soot before the chimney is placed is obnoxious. The smell isn't too great either. But know I know why. 🥶😊🥵 Thanks 👍

PiraTed

DIETZ NUTS, YOU MADMAN

Kate Kelly

Did any hurricane-lanterns (either hot-blast *or* cold-blast) feature incandescent mantles too?

Quixylvre

I’m looking forward to a future part about the mesh mantle lanterns! We used a propane version of them camping when I was a kid and they always seemed magical.

You're getting quite good at this whole YouTubey thing!

Big Car

Camping as a kid, my parents only ever used Coleman propane lanterns, and this old Coleman dual-fuel (propane and Coleman stove fuel) lantern. These lanterns used mantles, which glowed oddly bright, but became really fragile after their first use. Replacing a mantle meant replacing both since they were so fragile - unscrew the top, lift off the glass cover, then cinch the mantles (little cloth baggies) against the burners, and replace the glass and lid. Then light through the hole in the bottom. The old one had a primer pump that had to be pumped a few times before lighting it.

Stephen Gillie

He really is a luminary.

Stephen Gillie

The "glorious" Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare had a "hot air intake" by virtue of stacking the intake header above the exhaust header. This reliably caused "vapor lock", meaning the engine won't start until you floor it and crank the engine for about 30 seconds. And like you mention, every decent car has this sorted out. The only other place this comes into play is turbochargers, where hot exhaust gas compresses (and heats*) intake air, thus making intercoolers necessary. *Compression heats the intake air, and the exhaust heats the turbo which also heats the intake air more. So the intercooler is doubly necessary.

Stephen Gillie

The shaped glass and wick vent is a jet.

Stephen Gillie

Much like combustion lighting, internal combustion engines can run on a variety of fuels. They were originally designed to run from wood gas - the gases let off when charcoal is made. But Mr Honda used turpentine in his motorcycles in post-WW2 Japan. Gasoline isn't just the most efficient store of energy, but also a compressible soup of flammable solvents that clean out the byproducts of the previous reaction before combusting. And E85 is a return to this. Internal combustion engines will run on a huge number of fuels, but will generate more energy, more cleanly, for a lot longer, with gasoline.

Stephen Gillie

He is part of why things have gone slower for me... after a series of vet visits and a dietary change he's now fine, I think. I plan to explain all that in a video for y'all.

Technology Connections

The car analogy was, honestly, mainly for making a joke about cold air intakes mods. But yeah, the only trouble is it seems as though the best designs for lanterns did away with that idea entirely. Maybe there are hot-but-fresh-blast lanterns out there but none that I know of.

Technology Connections

"We'll burn that bridge when we get there." (6:05) My favorite mixed metaphor! Thanks for using it.

Stephen Gillie

Thanks. I now want some Taco Bell with a side of Kerosine. I mean Baja Blast.

John Bradley

Is your potential 2nd video like the Coleman lamps used for camping? I see they have both kerosene or propane options for fuel depending on the lamp and the wicks look similar.

Jeff Andrews

Fantastic stuff! Also, Test card girl!

James Dore

How's the adopted cat?

Brian Miller

Awesome video. I was hoping you were going to say "Delighted whales the oceans under".

Glad you were tickled by Dietz Nuts 🤣.

AmpSmashed Music

My grandpa made one into a night light for me. I was thinking of updating it for the 21st century. Also painting it, it's currently black but I don't think it's original paint. I like the blue on that one.

My favorite part of the Dietz Nutz joke was that until the blooper roll (which had me busting out at how hard it was to do that with a straight face) I wasn't 100% sure he was joking. If I was going to start a fan club for those lanterns, I'd vote for naming ourselves Dietz Nutz!

Loving the BBC test card T-shirt!

Stay indoors!

legraf

Good job. Dietz nuts is a new one for me. 😀

Myron Dietz

The car engine analogy doesn't prove by itself that preheating the air isn't useful. The main reason to cool intake air is so that it's denser and thus can fit more oxygen in the same size cylinder (which is a concern specific to internal combustion engines), and in general, heat engines benefit from large temperature ratios. Lanterns, on the other hand, want to produce light by incandescence, which entirely benefits from _greater_ temperature — there's no cold side, so recirculating the heat isn't obviously useless.

Kevin Reid

Given the upcoming months and the weather that comes with, this may be something useful to know.

Mr. Kitty

I spat out a perfectly good mouthful of coffee at Dietz Nuts

LGR

At the current temperatures here, I wouldn't even think about lighting a fire indoors... We used those cold blast lamps for camping and sailing, when it gets colder outside, the warmth is useful. I never thought about the whole technology behind the form and tubing, but that's interesting!

MrHammond

I wish I could remember the name of the charity I donated to a while back, whose purpose was getting solar-powered LED lanterns into the hands of those who would otherwise be forced to use the kerosene ones. They said that a $5 donation gave light to like 10 kids for several years, which made it that much easier, and safer, for them to do their homework. Just the idea of doing homework by combustion lantern light in 2021 is awful. >_<

coredumperror

I think It's a reference to Baha Blast flavored Mountain Dew?

coredumperror

Dietz nuts! HA!! I did not get that baja joke, though.

Circuitmike

If you do a part 2, please teach us more about incandescence! I know you're going to have to do that somewhat given the Aladdin is a mantle lamp, but... until you made a passing comment, I had no idea that candles made light because pollution was incandescing... and I had to use oil lamps non-ironically in the 80s and early 90s. I own a few Aladdin lamps... but now pretty much only for nostalgia.

Porkchop

Excellent video as always. Thank you for this.

Don Eitner

The people of the United Kingdom thank you for your t-shirt, Alec.

Thanks for shedding some light on this topic

Marc Grondin

This is really interesting. Could you use a smoke device like incense, a smoke firework, or whatever to better track the airflow on/around the lantern? You could let it get pulled into a certain area and watch how/if it travels.

Spectre

Great video, as ever. Also, Deitz bloopers…

Sean Hearrell