Gas Mantles: Steadier, Brighter, More Efficient Light 🔥

[@GregYeutter]

Should Edison, Swan, or someone else get credit for inventing the light bulb? This video explores the 19th-century development of this world-changing technology: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJfIXpyHd7qCoKM

[@GB-mt8mj]

It is 6:50 AM, I just worked 13 hours in the icu and have no idea how I stumbled upon this video. Hands down one of the best short informative videos I have ever watched. Incredible job. So interesting

[@GregYeutter]

Thank you! I hope to complete the series at some point

[@chrisegan7537]

New Jersey has a few towns that have kept gas street lighting, Glen Ridge has 667 gas street lights still in operation.

[@realvanman1]

Neat! I really like gas mantle lights. I never would have guessed that gas mantles are only twice as efficient as an open flame. I figured that they were considerably more efficient.

[@drewgehringer7813]

human eyes respond to light logarithmically rather than linearly; twice as much light being cast is perceived as quite a bit more than twice the "brightness"

[@nunyabizness199]

Perhaps not so efficient, but as bright as an electric bulb, and some extremely bright..

[@TimpBizkit]

@@drewgehringer7813 it's the other way around, where it takes disproportionately more light to look "twice as bright", perhaps 10 x as much, similar to the relationship between the loudness of sound and its power.

[@OsmanKErol]

I'm an engineer and I appreciate the engineering efforts to create a solution to an existing problem. Gas mantle lanterns, although they are surpassed by LED cousins, are still valuable to me for that reason. I collect many of them and I'm still using them for outdoor lighting often. The "hiss" sound, warmth and brightness they emit make me happy.

[@GregYeutter]

And I love seeing them in places like Central London, or catching the rare one in a US city!

[@wynnpetsovich34]

Great series I was looking for more of a history of Paris street lights.

[@z06rcr]

Just returned from Cape May NJ , seashore resort town which still has several hundred gas street lamps though, due to lack of maintenance,many have burnt through mantles that reveal open flame. They burn 24/7.

[@GregYeutter]

Interesting, it's been a while since I've been to Cape May, but I will check this out next time. Thanks!

[@musikSkool]

From a scientific standpoint, when a gas is heated to produce light it is called incandescence. In a flame it is the recently burned gasses that are heated to produce light. That is also how some lasers, some florescent lights, sparks, the sun, and lightning produce light. Incandescent gas.

[@ArchitecturalOrphans]

Bro this is fantastic content, subbed,

[@urvagrawal2358]

Man, why does this person have so few subscribers!!! He deserves much more views!!!

[@nentox_888]

because there all ads

[@coffeeandlifting]

Great vid. The old Coleman lanterns are easy to find at garage sales in my area. Even though they're "obsolete," there is something really cool about non-electric lights.

[@GregYeutter]

Totally agree! Thanks a lot!

[@K.Huynh.]

thank for explaining!

[@GregYeutter]

It's my goal in 2020 to significantly grow this channel. If you like what I'm doing, could you take a moment to subscribe? Thank you in advance.

[@obviouslytwo4u]

Hope you are successful, you narrat well my friend. I learnt a lot here.

[@GregYeutter]

@@obviouslytwo4u Thanks so much!

[@euphory]

Thank you! Wonderfully informative :)

[@GregYeutter]

Glad you liked it! More to come!

[@euphory]

@@GregYeutter Looking forward to that!

[@PremiumFuelOnly]

Ive always thought the gas mantle lights you see in older cities and older subdivision entrances were really interesting. Most of them arent being used and are state of disrepair. Id like to see them restored but I dont know who owns the gas line to contact about it, maybe the city? Id run one if I had one on my property.

[@GregYeutter]

Interesting question. I'd assume they are at least somewhat the responsibility of the property owner or organization. For example, there is a street near me in Philadelphia (34th and Sansom) that has regular street lights and ~5 gas mantles in front of several businesses. Only one is working currently. I believe it would be either the responsibility of the individual business/landlord OR the responsibility of the University (UPenn) OR the responsibility of the any organization the street's businesses have created. It seems the most common problems are: • broken mantles (easy fix) • clogged gas pipelines and burner tips (more difficult-apparently spiders love to get in there) The maintenance and gas costs for these are, unfortunately, way higher than electric street lights. There are also a couple companies making LED lookalikes, so a retrofit could be another alternative. I hope this helps a bit.

[@PremiumFuelOnly]

​@@GregYeutter Theres a couple across the street from where I work on a brick stairway leading down to some train tracks from the street, Ill shoot an email to the city manager tomorrow to ask if I can "adopt" them. Id be curious to see the response id get. I think the hardest part would be getting new glass for them.

[@GregYeutter]

Best of luck. It would be great to see some of these come back to life.

[@rdlykryk4384]

@@GregYeutter Although in the Rockies for 30 + yrs. I grew up just south of you in Del. Co. where many of the neighborhoods still had running gas lamp posts into the mid 70's. I still think they are great. If the owner takes responsibility both financial and safety (insurance) That person should be permitted to use them. Thx. for video Greg. I am interested in this subject.

[@GregYeutter]

@@rdlykryk4384 There are still some around, if you look closely! But I know of at least one suburban area in NJ that was built in the 60s and 70s with gas lamps. It no longer has them, save for a few lamps that appear to be converted.

[@arishaaahmau4568]

Greg Yeutter, i enjoyed your video, however i am sure that your comparison of the efficiency of gas flame and gas mantle light is in error by a wide factor. I can give you "off the top of my head" data in cu. ft. and candlepower. The lumen per watt you can derive once you have found a robust comparison to quote from...(like the ones i have seen) Now Open Flame Gas lights, depending on size and type of burner give 25 Candlepower or so (Batwing) using more than 6 cu.ft of coal gas (550Btu/cu ft, approx). The Upright Gas Mantle, Welsbach "C" (4"tall) Produce 100 Candle Power from 5 - 5 1/2cuft per hour....That is a factor of four times the light for somewhat less gas....The further development of the inverted mantle increased the efficiency by producing the same light say 100c.p. but at a saving of one third of gas consumption. The sources still exist for these, i have seen several tables etc of relative efficiency in old lighting publications, what i have given you above is from memory....interestingly the form of gas street lighting called "high pressure gas lighting" in English and "PressGas" in German gave another improvement in efficiency by compressing the gas so that higher temperature flames were achieved, This and adiffering mantle with a 3% rather than a 1 % Cerium content gave a lot more light. These compressed systems were used extensively to light Central Berlin , London, Paris from 1905 or so through to WW2 in Berlins case and shortly thereafter for London.... These lamps were commonly 1,000 , 2,000 , 3,000 candle power which closely approximate to 800W 1600W and 2400W Incandescent Bulbs...of course this Light output came with the lovely colour temperature of Gas Mantle Lighting, Trafalgar Sq at London was famously lit with these and can be seen in old films. Blessings, RxR

[@eckligt]

Correction on Thorium: It has a half-life of 14 bn years, which is very long. But contrary to what is perhaps the popular conception, long half lives do not equate to high level of radioactivity. In fact, it's the other way around, having a short half life means that an atom will transition to another element, isotope or isomer faster, and so will dump nuclear energy on its surroundings, in the form of various types of radiation, faster as well. In summary, you were right about the overall picture -- Thorium is weakly radioactive -- but wrong about the reason for that. It's also worth pointing out that Thorium's useful is lighting is entirely unrelated to its radioactivity.

[@GregYeutter]

Thanks!

[@vladimirsilver2633]

Thoriums radioactivity is harmless. Radon is not harmless and is constantly produced by thorium. However with normal ventilation its a non issue.

[@Richard.Sanchez]

What is the largest gas mantle ever made / used? Is there a limiting factor on the size?

[@silentseawolf]

Largest commercial gas mantles are about 500 candle power. you can find them on kerosene lanterns. Petromax HK500, and Coleman 639 are common. My best guess is that as mantles are fragile, a smaller mantle seems to be more resistant to shocks than a larger one, in my experience.

[@obviouslytwo4u]

My mate said. old lamps didn't use electric, I thought he was talking gas.

[@aleksandarmarre7878]

Couldn’t I just buy a lightbulb that doesn’t emit blue light and use those and not buy ur thing? Ima do that. Cuz even if I use it in the day in my ceiling lights the sun will provide enough to keep me awake😂

[@HelloWorld-zg3gs]

The poor but sexy capital lol

[@GregYeutter]

"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy" www.thebrusselsprouts.me/2013/08/berlin-ist-arm-aber-sexy.html

[@FranBunnyFFXII]

Only problem is that in this video, you dont actually explain how it works. You kinda breezed over that.