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History of Technology Videos 160 videos

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History of Technology 1: We Want Better Lighting 35 Views


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Description:

What do we want? Better lighting! When do we want it? Mow! ...Wait, that might say "now." See, this is why we need better lighting. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

These days we don't know how to function without electricity seriously [Employee in a store standing by the counter as the lights cut out]

00:06

watch it yes people are scary people really are scary anyway without

00:11

electricity all the communication tools of our you know communication age

00:16

wouldn't work our smartphones laptops tablets and TVs would just be lifeless [Smartphones, laptops and TV's all dead on a table]

00:20

hunks of whatever cheap materials they made em out of in China and lots of

00:25

electricity would affect more than just communication most of our appliances

00:29

gadgets and thingamabobs are powered by [Electric eel electrocutes a fish]

00:33

electricity. Blenders, toasters, vacuum cleaners and that annoying singing fish

00:37

on old people's walls you know the don't worry be happy' fish that thing. Each [Fish on a wall singing]

00:44

one needs electricity or needs to be smashed with a hammer but back in the

00:49

1890s people hadn't started to dream of all these crazy things yet the craze

00:54

back then with little simpler people wanted better lighting house not because [People in a poorly lit house walking into each other]

00:58

they wanted more flattering photos but because the lighting they had kind of

01:02

stunk in 1800s most cities burned coal gas for nighttime lighting. Four things we [Man burning coal outside]

01:07

hate about coal gas lamps then no that's not a weird sequel to 10 Things I Hate

01:12

About You. One: they were smoky and dirty Two: They had to be lit every night. Three:

01:18

they released toxic fumes. Four: they could explode at any time say what you will [Fumes bellowing into the air and a coal lamp explodes]

01:24

about that last one but it sure made bedtime story reading way more

01:27

exciting so yep the need for better lighting was pretty serious though

01:32

people got to work well the first electric light was called an arc lamp [An arc lamp dangling from the ceiling]

01:35

and it was fairly simple it took two conductive rods packed them in a glass

01:40

bulb with some gas and boom the electricity arc from one rod to the [Electricity moving from one rod to another in a glass bulb]

01:45

other the cons, arc lamps take up a bunch of power and while they don't last very

01:50

long still until late 1890s electric arc lamps were the only electric lighting in [Street of houses lighting goes out]

01:55

town then came incandescent bulbs about 23

02:00

different inventors came up with incandescent lightbulb before old Tommy

02:04

Edison that didn't stop Tommy E from putting the smackdown on all 23 of them [Edison smashing a green fist onto a table]

02:09

his design trumped the others in practical usefulness

02:13

Edison's bulb worked like this; electricity first traveled up a wire in

02:17

the glass bulb and then move through something called a filament the curly

02:21

part of the lightbulb and here's a fun light bulb surprise the filament is made [Lightbulb highlighting the filament]

02:26

of material that doesn't conduct electricity very well when the

02:31

electricity meets this resistance some of it turns into heat and light and that's

02:36

how Edison said let there be light kind of had a god complex [Edison preaching by a church window]

02:40

but Tommy's ego aside the lightbulb changed modern lighting forever and it

02:45

makes bedtime stories way safer [Girl turns bedside lamp on]

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