New Video! The High Pressure Sodium Light

Great vid Alec, you definitely have a gift for presenting any topic in an engaging fashion. When I grew up in Scotland (many, many moons ago laddie), all streetlights were LPS and you couldn't even tell what colour cars were. Great show, as always... Keep up the good work :-)

Gordo

I just added you to my Patron list doc, so you should appear in the next video!

Technology Connections

Awesome video, keep up the good work :) Also, when's mah name gonna be on the list? I wanna brag to my friends!

Thanks for another great video. I think your sense of humour is similar to mine so I chuckled a lot! :)

Great video again! You always seem to make videos on things that I'm curious about as well.

Another fantastic video! I actually really really love the look of sodium vapor. I work in the film industry as a union set lighting technician and indie gaffer. Whenever it makes sense, I try to sneak the orange goodness into the films I gaff. I think it's a fantastic grungy-gritty look. It's very dramatic. Usually I'm trying to recreate sodium vapor rather than use an actual sodium vapor light. I've found it rather challenging to perfectly nail the look. I don't know of a way to control the hertz on the ballast, so I just stay away using a sodium vapor bulbs to avoid any flicker. I can't wait to see more of this series!

"But should they be?" "yeah" ... lulz.

Jason McMillon

A fascinating presentation. You've got a knack for making very informative videos on subjects that at first mention seem to be of no interest. As a result, my mental archive of weird data is growing larger by the week!

Roger Beal

I actually did know about the sodium vapor process! I believe it was just standard LPS lighting. When I get to my videos on chemical photography, we'll be looking into that somewhat. I have a Thomas Duplex Super Safelight which uses a 35W LPS bulb, as the 589.3 nm wavelength doesn't expose black and white photographic paper--which I imagine is how they made the film that cannot see the screen lit with sodium lighting.

Technology Connections

Something you would not know, Disney used a form of Sodium lighting, for there own unique Chroma Key in there films like Mary Poppins etc. hence why the actors look liked they fitted into the animated scenes so seamlessly. You will find the majority of Disney films used this from the period when Mary Poppins and Bednobs and Broomsticks was made. This unique chroma key had the advantage that the clothing the actors wore was not issue unlike blue or green chroma, which was more common place at the time.

Paul Fisher

Ooh, good point! I'll have to add that to my next video. Believe it or not, in Elmhurst (the town I grew up in) most lights in the residential areas are still mercury vapor. Assuming they haven't changed in the last 2 years I can get some footage. Elmhurst got very lazy with replacing them on a routine basis and many are still "functional" but with horrid light output.

Technology Connections

Another great video Alec. The voice reply @ 12:24 made me jump though. Guess I was too focused and not expecting that. lol

You might want to add something for the younger folks, who probably assume that the street at night was always this pink-peach sodium color, but when I was growing up in the 60's & 70's - the street lights were all that sickly purple-blue color of mercury lamps, because they were as ubiquitous as the sodium is now! - I am not sure which color is more annoying! - it's close. There was also the weird time, for a few years, as sodium was replacing mercury, where the streets were this odd random mix of both, as the mercuries slowly burned out and were replaced with sodiums.

Bill Basch