SHORT: Pocket Battery No.1

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In a previous video, we covered the strange history of medical coils, high-voltage, high-frequency transformers used in electrotherapy - the treatment of various illnesses using electricity. These coils came in all shapes and sizes, but among the smallest was the Pocket Battery No.1, produced by various American companies around the turn of the 20th Century.
Medical Coils Video: • Medical Coils: Zapping...
SOURCES:
www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...
www.rarestfinds.com/rm/09345-...
www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?...
themarconline.org/history-cor...
patents.google.com/patent/US2...
academic.oup.com/jhmas/articl...
www.rarestfinds.com/rm/09345-...

[@Skorpychan]

I'm very much liking this trend of youtubers dressing up and explaining things calmly, clearly, and formally to a camera without any nonsense.

[@nooddood1873]

swear to god, you and technology connections are like long lost brothers. I see a subject and I never know which of you it is

[@protogenxl]

Technology-Connection's lack of bowtie is a glaring difference.....

[@firstletterofthealphabet7308]

@@protogenxlThey’re both ‘80s men, it’s just that while Alec is a 1980s man, Gilles is an 1880s man.

[@nstabl]

lol!!

[@nosidenoside2458]

The way I understand it is this dude looks at devices, so like usually handheld, probably old. Technology Connections meanwhile does newer things, like from the 80's or 90's, and also stuff to do with wall electricity

[@hedgehog3180]

Our Own Devices is what you get when you cross Technology Connections with Forgotten Weapons.

[@wardsdotnet]

Lead toys, mercury based emetics, open wet cell batteries... It's a wonder anyone survived that era

[@christianterrill3503]

If you made it 17 then you got swept up in a war, so yea it's amazing anyone made it to old age then.

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

Well most things end us slowly. And everyone knew that T.B. would end them before 50 back then anyway. Sooooo....

[@hedgehog3180]

@@jonathanwright1191 only those with autism survived?

[@karhukivi]

Those things were not that dangerous. Today's snowflake generation sees dangers in everything, just as well electricity wasn't invented recently - the greens would want to ban that too.

[@CraftAero]

I SOOooo need one of these to power my Edison while I write my screenplay at Starbucks.

[@thecontinuingadventureso-qs5zm]

We had a similar device when I was a kid. It must have been Edwardian if not even Victorian. It had no battery so I worked out how to wire up a 9volt pp3 to it. then Me and My little Sister would take turns at seeing how long We could hold onto the electrodes with high voltage running through our hands! I think I overclocked it as I don't think it was supposed to run on 9 volts, so We were probably running dangerous voltage levels through ourselves! ; - )

[@oasntet]

Maybe painful, but unlikely actually dangerous. The coil steps down current as much as it steps up voltage, mostly, so it'd be pretty difficult to pass enough current to cause any significant harm. Mostly. If your unit had an interrupter (the buzzing thing at 2:38) the coil would store a bit of extra charge and release it in what is effectively crude PWM. Individual zaps could therefore exceed the wattage the battery itself is capable of, but for extremely short amounts of time, and the overall power would be even less due to spending a lot of it activating the interrupter.

[@lloydevans2900]

@@oasntetIt depends on how much current the battery can supply: If the high voltage generator is powered from the most common types of 9 volt battery (either PP3 or PP9, containing 6 smaller 1.5 volt alkaline or zinc-carbon cells in series), there is no way one of these can supply enough current to make sparks capable of doing any permanent damage. This type of primary (non-rechargeable) battery has a fairly high internal resistance, aka equivalent series resistance or ESR, which limits the current drawn from the battery, even under short-circuit conditions. However, this can be rather different with other types of battery: Rechargeable (secondary) batteries usually have a much lower ESR, so can deliver much higher currents. The current limiting factors for this type are the physical size of the cell, plus quite often the internal construction of the cells. Consider lead-acid batteries as an example - larger cells will not just have more amp-hour capacity, but will also be capable of delivering more current. This is why cars with higher displacement engines typically also use a larger lead-acid battery - the bigger the engine, the more powerful the starter motor has to be in order to turn the engine over for starting, which means the battery must be capable of supplying higher currents. As for cell construction, compare a standard lead-acid battery with a sealed "zero maintenance" lead-acid battery of equal physical size: The latter type uses either a gelling agent (finely powdered amorphous silica) or woven glass fibre matting to immoblilise the sulfuric acid electrolyte, with fewer (but thicker) lead plates in each cell. Even though the total amp-hour capacity can be the same as a standard lead-acid battery, the maximum current output will be lower. If you used a typical car battery to run a high voltage coil, this would make far more power available to the coil due to the high current output of the battery, despite only being 12 volts DC. So it is likely that the high voltage output in that situation could be far more harmful, maybe even lethally so. In fact this is quite similar to the high voltage "ignition coils" used to power the spark plugs in car engines, and those generate high voltage with more than enough power to be lethal.

[@JCWren]

I think in some (many?) cases serial numbers started at numbers like 1000 for typesetting reasons. Have "S/N 1" looks weird, while "S/N 1000" looks more normal. Certainly starting with high serial numbers to imply an established product was also done.

[@CraftAero]

Also may allow for a "series' revision to 2xxx, 3xxx.

[@Redacted-Arms]

That is actually a very clever converter for DC to AC.

[@SimEon-jt3sr]

Pretty sure that mechanical means were the only way to make AC until...Mr T. Also they had things like a brushed motor, and the contact would make and break as a rotor turned...I forget but I think there might have been one more method

[@tz8785]

@@SimEon-jt3sr There were several pre-electronic methods. For higher power and clean AC, the way to go was a rotary converter or motor-generator with a DC motor driving an AC generator. A somewhat dirty AC source was essentially a motorised mechanical switch, switching/swapping DC between two lines, essentially producing AC as a square wave (similar to the interrupter here, except the coil turns the square wave into impressive spikes).

[@rocketman221projects]

This was commonly used to power car radios which needed to step up 6 volts from the battery to around 100 volts.

[@Redacted-Arms]

@@rocketman221projects Makes sense. Probably before the invention of the low voltage vacuum tube. I can't remember the number off of the top of my head, but it is a 12ax7 variant

[@frogz]

"short" yeah... short.... never change, your channel is perfect just the way it is!!!

[@fredknox2781]

LOL.. at 1:50 that's the ancestor of the rediculous looking thing advertised in TV commercials today.

[@GothGuy885]

its basically just a buzzer with two leads connected across the interrupter contacts. I remember my dad telling me that when he and my uncle were boys, they did something similar, but connected the ends of the wires running from the interrupter to two butter knives, and would take turns seeing how long each of them could hold on to them, while the current was on. I assume they used a 24 volt doorbell transformer to power the buzzer. they were always doing interesting electronics experiments, and were fascinated with Marconi's wireless radios. and built a few receivers and transmitter from scratch. later during WWII, my dad was a radio man for a tank battalion in the US Army.

[@Crckwood]

Merci Gilles pour cette présentation! Toujours aussi intéressant! Bonne continuation!

[@VEC7ORlt]

A little correction regarding the control - its not about permeability - its about copper being a shorted turn inside a transformer.

[@trey1531]

The original rechargeable battery!

[@uiopuiop3472]

mr gynesiume whay is that tje no 1

[@snowfish7294]

damn that inflation

[@cbhlde]

Electrifying content, as usual! ;)

[@spencerhealy877]

soon this channel will be at a million subs and it will be well deserved

[@Mike-H_UK]

It's a pity the oscillator was not tried out with a modern battery.

[@neoAREAXIS]

The plasma wands are awesome

[@the.bog.]

Our Own Devices is one of the few channels that I specially watch on the big screen

[@graemedavidson499]

Doctors seemed to be fans of heavy metal back in the day…many were shocked

[@danmadden1080]

Thanks for the video- from New Zealand.

[@timgrass5218]

Very interesting, well done sir!

[@zeon5323]

I like these short videos.

[@michaelcerkez3895]

Coming from an old electronics professor, I find that very interesting. Nice research.

[@pierre5325]

absolutely fascinating! thankyou. I have subscribed

[@ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg]

More tech history to be found on no other channel. This is a public service.

[@josephrogers5337]

your interrupter is similar to vibrators used in old tube car radios. it would vibrate or cut in and out at about 60 cycles and would be used to transform 6 volt dc in to a higher voltage used is such radios.

[@1906Farnsworth]

Excessively pedantic correction: At 3:31you mention magnetic permittivity, but magnetic susceptibility is called permeability. Permittivity relates to electric fields, not magnetic. Pedantry aside, I very much enjoy your videos.

[@dpeter6396]

Outstanding!!!

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

Lead toys, just what a young brain needs, brilliant!

[@GillAndBurtTheCop]

I did a double take when he said "mercury bisulfate." Made it like ten seconds past it till I realized what he just said, had to repeat the video.

[@donmear6654]

I think the most amazing thing is that $128 is equivalent to $3.50 in those days. My change jar has a few years worth of wages in it

[@jukees3658]

this would be the most hipster way to charge an Iphone

[@mirskym]

Steampunk!

[@GMCLabs]

Wow! Could they have chosen a more cursed battery(actually cell) design than that?

[@RealSamski]

Almost like an ancient car ignition system.

[@Bill-wz6tw]

I love that you are able to explain things so well not only from a historical perspective but from a scientific how it works perspective as well even if I think you dress funny Haha But don't change a thing

[@mirskym]

Wouldn't mercury bisulphate be very toxic?

[@hedgehog3180]

Yes absolutely.

[@kidmohair8151]

we certainly had some very odd (crackpot) ideas, didn't we?

[@troyallen8223]

😎👍🏼 Awesome

[@guineapigzed]

When done , rinse with water.

[@Iowa599]

Test it!

[@Muonium1]

Someone's gonna have ta help me with the name of that mercury battery inventor in the 19th century. Even the autocaptions have no idea.... Mairie Delviey? Mieriay Dalvyei? ??? Chat GPT has no idea either of course.

[@jamesslick4790]

Ironically, the WEAR of these would make me MORE interested in owning such a thing, as it WAS used.

[@petebeatminister]

Makes you wonder why they would try to build such a device so small. And with such a dodgy power supply - in 1900 they had better options already.

[@mattheide2775]

❤

[@Bill-wz6tw]

Oh and the civilian tasers are more powerful than the ones law enforcement gets to use also so there is a TENS unit on steroids for incapacitation or decentralizing an assailant

[@CNCmachiningisfun]

They don't make things like they used to, *thankfully!*

[@000Mazno000]

My robot brother used to be married, that was until he got charged with a domestic battery

[@sillysad3198]

my! if this salt eats something it has to leave metallic mercury behind. and u r lucky if it is metallic, because eating organic matter may result in mercury organic compounds.

[@TrapperAaron]

Luvs the series keep em coming! Pay no attention to that slovenly basement dweller at technology connections. He wouldn't know wainscoting from his waistcoat. I visited the man he said let's have brandies after dinner. I must say dinner was quite nice, liver flambe w an accompaniment of Fava beans and a nice chianti. However when we retired to the library for brandywine he reached for and served port. And certainly not the finest vintage. Yes I said port.

[@themeantuber]

Go trust medicine...

[@AlexejSvirid]

The problem is Devil runs the world. He is lier and murderer. That's why we've got the Gospel about the God's kingdom. Jehovah would put everything in order. The dead will be resurected and we'll meet our beloved ones again! :-)

[@Pilot_engineer_19]

Did you know that in the "so called modern " 📻 the tuning capacitor is being replaced with a voltage controlled oscillator? Seems like a waste of energy. 📟 Also, the entire radio hardware has been replaced by software!💻