GE Form-7 AC Series enclosed carbon arc lamp

[@Muonium1]

I'm really surprised it's only equal to around a 100W incandescent. i always imagined all old arc lamps to be insanely bright. In just about a century we went from needing about a kilowatt of power to light a room to just 10 watts. It constantly astounds me. There's only at most a factor of 2 or so left before we hit the wall of theoretical maximum efficiency of light production.

[@Mirroxaphene]

@@Muonium1 these fixtures are very inefficient. Still a step forward from Oil & candles.

[@Muonium1]

@@Mirroxaphene Of course! Have you ever read the '94 paper by Nordhaus on the historical cost and efficiency of artificial light? It's great.

[@ralfbaechle]

Probably because this nowadays is a very old and thus rare carbon arc lamp. There are more surviving lamps of newer models usually from a time when tungsten already had taken over lower power incandescent lighting. Most insane the ww2 flak lights or film projector lamps. I believe the latter were one of the last holdouts for arc lamps due to the pretty white light colour in combination with high power density.

[@SuburbanDon]

Cool stuff.

[@walsakaluk1584]

This has to be brighter than a 100W incandescent lamp. Arc lamps were pretty ubiquitous not that long ago wherever high intensity lighting was required. Not street lighting. Seriously my car has HID arc lamps today. Bloody brilliant ( pun intended) I trust you were wearing welding PPE in front of your face at least during this demo. You weren't getting tanned, your skin's DNA was being sliced and diced. Great presentation 🙏

[@wtmayhew]

Thanks for sharing this old arc lamp. That is a really clever mechanism for keeping the carbons adjusted and making sure the arc touches off reliably when power is first applied. It goes to show that people were plenty smart in the old days - they just had not yet discovered modern technology.

[@TigerBoyRS]

Welcome back, with a new awesome arc light. Your videos are brilliantly precious, think about that. Cheers 🍷

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Thanks for sharing this lamp! Fascinating piece of tech. I understand about the noise, and yeah that would have been good as outdoor lighting. Glad you are making these videos!

[@InssiAjaton]

A little argument about the frequency. Apart from the gravity effects (vertical mounting), there is basically a symmetry, meaning the current goes through zero 120 times per second, not just 60 times. My understanding and belief has been that the “light pillar” lamps still used in even on the latter part of 1900s for some fair advertising were these carbon arc lamps. In fact they were left-overs from WW2, then used for anti aircraft artillery guidance. . A funny memory from my young explorer days - I put together two carbons from big old lantern batteries, a space heater (as a series connected current limiter) and maybe a 150 W transformer, or maybe no transformer at all, plus some wiring. When I touched the corners of the two carbons to each other, I got an open air version of my “arc lamp” Too bad, the carbons got hot in a short while, and melted the adhesive on the insulating tapes I had applied for keeping the carbons in my hands. The tape started slipping, and I got into direct contact with the carbons. Got a little educational experience that I had not expected. I think one time was enough to me for playing with my arc lamp.

[@JimmyZNJ]

Your videos are always informative and a treat! Thanks for sharing this with us!

[@ViatronTumpington]

Hi i'm viatron from Sheffield, this was the very first electric carbon arc street light & since the mid-1880s when the first electric arc street lamps were installed in many towns & cities via being very unstable & very unsafe in those times until the more safer lamps such as tungsten filament, mercury & sodium gas filled versions of the early-1900s & also the development of the fluorescent tube in multi-tubed fluorescent lanterns developed in the 1950s. Thanks for your co-operation on this very special vintage electric arc carbon street lighting subject from David Viatron Esquire of crookes in Sheffield, England.

[@peterjameson321]

Fantastic! You're back! I and I'm sure many others have missed you.

[@peterjameson321]

Fascinating! Thanks for a well presented video.

[@clairmorrill8660]

In the early 1900's they used these arc lamps to light up the Tabernacle on Temple square in SLC, Utah, I saw a picture of one in one of our church manual's

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

I would call those "Magnetic bypass coils" I'm just a Electronics hobbyist. Nice lamp though!👍

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

I just ran the video at 2 X speed to get a representation of the 120 HZ, it should be running at. It's a lot more quiet!

[@nayakacreativity3639]

Finally new video !!! 🔥

[@walsakaluk1584]

Tres cool!

[@alandavis1986]

pretty cool little machine

[@spanishFriedEggsOnYoutube]

That’s unique!

[@wickedxe]

Awesome video, I was wondering if the carbons are easy to get or are they a specialist item?

[@Mirroxaphene]

@@wickedxe readily available on eBay.

[@wickedxe]

@@Mirroxaphene Thanks for your reply, I have to say that is interesting. I once got a job offer to run 1930's 35mm cinema projectors that ran carbon arc lamps to which I said thanks but no thanks due to the fact that they ran 2 projectors that ran 2000ft reels which would give you 15 minutes of a movie after that you would switch to the other projector that would screen the next reel

[@araselitovar1791]

Adams lighting llc were is all of your hid street light videos did you remove them or deleted them

[@Mirroxaphene]

@@araselitovar1791 another collector Lester Bonilla used information from my videos to get me fired from my job for removing streetlights from the dumpster.

[@kenytha5]

​@Mirroxaphene that is unbelievable

[@spanishFriedEggsOnYoutube]

@@Mirroxaphenethat’s horrible.

[@araselitovar1791]

What!

[@araselitovar1791]

Oh my gosh

[@ImTheReal]

Subscribed

[@PaulWannenburg]

Do you test them with a welding transformer?

[@praestant8]

Mmmm asbestos

[@Mirroxaphene]

@@praestant8 it’s a crunchy snack :-P