The Light Bulb Is Much Older Than You Think: A History

It’s 1705 and you’ve been invited to the Royal Society of London. Imagine your surprise to see an incredible sight: Isaac Newton’s assistant, Francis Hauksbee, holding a strange device with a glass tube on a spindle that could be spun with a handle. The lights dim, and as the glass is spun an eerie purple light emanates from the tube.

It’s bright enough to be seen from 10 feet away and to read large print. So how did this experiment lead to the battery

and the first bright and long-lasting electric light, nearly 100 years later?

Newton’s assistant, who demonstrated this purple light, had figured out that a drop of mercury in a vacuum tube would glow if he shook it. To make that easier, he put the tube on a spindle and placed a hand on it to stabilize it. These actions made the light glow significantly brighter.

Hauksbee realized that by spinning this tube and putting his hand on it, he was creating a lot of static electricity, which he demonstrated in a separate spinning glass with threads in it, which would become attracted to the outside of the sphere.

Take a journey through time from Newton’s assistant to glowing books to jumping dead frogs to the arc lamp all with tons of demonstrations. WATCH:

h/t Joe O.

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Comments (6)

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    Jerry Krause

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    Hi Herb and PSI readers,,

    Here is a really good article about a historical review of the known history of SCIENTIFIC observations which can be still be observed today if one tries to reproduce these experiments (observations).. And you and other frequent commenters haven’t yet tried to refute them with your unique scientific understandings.

    As I become older I finally recognize the possible significance of my experience. I have read about Ben Franklin flying his kite (s?). Before we had electricity at our farm home I can remember sleeping through a lighting strike of our home. According to the story I remember, my parents didn’t; but they looked out at the barn and it was okay and they went back to sleep.

    However, the next morning when my father went to the basement to separate his morning’s milking, he discovered more than a foot of water in the basement. The lighting strike had struck an eave trough into the basement cistern and blown out its 8 inch thick concrete wall.

    Just a week or two I read that that during a day or two there were 40,000 lighting strikes observed in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. I wonder (ponder) how was all this concentrated energy from the atmosphere created? Maybe you can tell us. I get tired of your claims that Einstein’s and Newton’s efforts were so WRONG.

    Have a good day, Jerry

    Reply

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      Herb Rose

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      Jerry,
      I will try to explain it again, but I doubt it will have any effect.
      When water absorbs heat it does not radiate all that heat or grow hotter. Instead much of that heat splits water molecules into hydroxyl and hydrogen ions. (see Dr.Pollack’s book for experimental evidence.)
      The hydroxyl ions combine with other water molecules to form a crystal shell around the interior which contains the positive hydronium ions. This give the water liquid crystal a exterior negative charge.which in turn causes the crystal to rise in the atmosphere due to the negative charge of the surface of the Earth. The energy absorbed by the water is stored as electrical energy. (see Dr.Pollack’s experiment showing an electrical charge potential between the shell and interior of the water.) At the tOp of the troposphere the energy of the sun is able to melt the crystal shell releasing negative charges. This is why under thunderstorms the surface of the Earth has a positive charge, as the electrons on the surface move away from the greater negative charge in the clouds. When the crystal shell melts completely the negative and positive charges in the crystal neutralize each other releasing the stored energy into space. With the negative charge of the crystal shell gone the electrons on the Earth rush back under the now neutral cloud creating a large negative charge, which then creates a lightning bolt where the electrons flow from the Earth to the cloud.
      Herb

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      Jerry Krause

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      Hi Herb,
      You began “When water absorbs heat it does not radiate all that heat or grow hotter.” First question: What is this heat which water absorbs? This is not a trivial question for you explain: “Instead much of that heat splits water molecules into hydroxyl and hydrogen ions.” For a second question is: What happens if the water continuously absorbs heat? Are all the water molecules eventually converted into “hydroxy and hydrogen ions”?

      Please do not refer me to some other person to answer these questions for you.

      Have a good day, Jerry

      Reply

      • Avatar

        Herb Rose

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        Hi Jerry,
        Liquid water absorbs a broad spectrum of infrared radiation. This energy grows liquid crystal structures as hydroxyl and hydrogen ions combine with other water molecules. These liquid crystals become smaller as heat is absorbed and when they are small enough and their negative shell charge is large enough they separate from the water in evaporation. The crystals continue to grow by a thickening of their shell up to 100C where additional energy (540 calories/gram) begins to melt the crystals releasing the stored crystal energy as the electric charges neutralize. Have you wondered why lightning doesn’t occur when boiling water? Liquid crystals have 2 melt points. With water the first melt point is 0C while the second melt point is greater than 100C but below the 540 calories needed to convert the water to a gas. In clouds as the crystal melts from the exterior of the droplet the negative charge remains separated from the internal positive charge by the remaining crystal shell. This produces the negative charge on the droplet that repels the electrons on the Earth, creating a positive charge under the thunder cloud. When the crystal shell of the water is breached the charges neutralize producing heat the is radiated into space and removing the negative force on the electrons on the surface creating lightning. The water never turns into a gas of individual molecules but converts from a solid (liquid crystal) to a liquid and falls to Earth as a liquid.
        The references to Dr. Pollack are to provide experimental evidence in support of the liquid crystal structure of water as heat is absorbed.
        Herb

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        Jerry Krause

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        Hi Herb,

        You did not answer my questions. “Liquid water absorbs a broad spectrum of infrared radiation.” is not an answer. For if the water does not warm, how does one know this? And what is the source of this broad spectrum of infrared radiation which we cannot see with our eyes?

        If anyone is reading what we (you and I) write, they know you seem to ignoring my questions and the consequences of what you write.

        Have a good day, Jerry

        Reply

        • Avatar

          Jerry Krause

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          Hi Herb and possible PSI Readers,

          I now see I did not type the little word: be. One can figure out where it should have been..

          Have a good day, Jerry

          Reply

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