120 Year Old Rare Nernst Lamps

[Music] today we've got another absolutely totally boring useless video which you'll get fed up with after two minutes and you won't want to watch it i'm joking i have a video for you today i guarantee you haven't seen one of these anywhere on the internet in this much detail for the first time in about 120 years we're gonna video something that doesn't exist anywhere else and that is a nernst lamp it's the most bonkers bizarre lamp that you've probably ever seen so we're going to crack on we're going to take one apart because these things don't work because they're so old and corroded we're going to try and strip one down and put it all back together and see if we can tickle it back to life then if we do and we get this thing working it will be the first on the internet i've said all that but i've already done it so i know it works so enjoy the video [Laughter] let's have a look inside it shall we so very carefully unscrew this slide that out very carefully don't even want to touch that because we'll end up breaking it let's put that out the way let's take this bit off there we go we need to clean these contacts up a bit there right let's give it a bit of a clean up yeah there's a proper bare connection on there on it let's do something with that so that's quite a few bits and pieces just for a light bulb so i need to clean all these bits and pieces up put it all back together and see what happens it's old and it's quite corroded there's a tiny little contact on this i need to clean that up right on the end there's the other contact there for the beretta or the ballast i've done this one a little bit to improve it i've cleaned the contacts on this relay and it works well i've tried to clean these contacts up as best i can they're not perfect but we should get electrical connection on there all right to some degree they were absolutely black and not making contact they were like that [Music] well the relay's working let's get a shot from the other side these little marker covers go back over on top of the relay and then we'll put that ballast back in it this is the beretta which is a small glass bulb it's full of hydrogen and the actual conductor the filament in there is made of iron and it's very stable over a wide range of voltages so it will give quite a stable output regardless of the load and the resistance changes on the output so this actually has a resistance of 16 ohms let's uh slide it back into this holder got some sort of reasonable connection there good so we've got the relay in that base which works all the contacts are cleaned up that barretter is back in its holder so now if we put that heater and glower back on the top i wonder what will happen this is the circuit for the lamps this glower doesn't actually pass the electricity until it gets hot so this heater has to heat it first before current will pass through this and emit light so initially the power comes in it goes through these contacts on the relay that are normally closed through the heater heater heats up now the glower will start to pass electricity as it gets hot so as it does so power then begins to flow through this relay coil through this beretta which is our resistor and now we've got a small current flow through the glower now this relay has a small magnetic field going through it because we've got some current going through the glower and in turn this contact opens so now the heater becomes out of circuit it's quite straightforward really in it here's a nice close-up of the heater and the actual glower which is the emitter so we've got the spiral bit which is the actual heater and inside there we've got platinum wire coiled around some asbestos rope or cotton and then that's dipped in some oxide so it can't uh vaporize and oxidize any further because it's already an oxide and it's the same with the actual emitter or the glower in the middle that's made of zirconium oxide there's no wire in it and it doesn't conduct very well under normal circumstances until it's heated once it's heated then electricity will start to pass through it and obviously it glows red hot as it does so and that's the actual light output that tiny straight bar in the middle that is the glower that's the bit what gives us the light these coils just heat it temporarily and then they switch off these things are incredibly fragile if you sneezed on it you'd probably break it but i have repaired these before because you can get on the little connections and we make some wire connections if you have to but it's incredibly fiddly so this is the risky bit should i risk powering it up these things are hideously expensive they're rare and nobody's ever been brave enough or perhaps stupid enough to risk powering one up inside the lamp um because it could easily be destroyed but this is photonic inductions channel and i think if i didn't attempt it that would be a waste so a few good people i'm going to take this risk i think we'll have a go at powering up we've certainly got the equipment i'm sure we've got the skills let's do it so the heater is coming up [Music] that's the relay and she's on very good what we're going to do now is turn off the power and then turn it back on we can see the glower extinguish the relay has now set back to its parking position to normally closed when we put the power back on now the heater comes on until the glower starts to conduct when the glower conducts then the relay opens its circuit and the heater goes off heater is coming up that's the relay heater off grower on so wonderful that is a very nice light 110 years later or more photonic induction cleans it up and gets the thing going that's not bad it's quite bright really run it on dc 130 this is purely the light from this that's amazing i'm impressed i should turn it off really shouldn't i that is super rare let's take this off that there is a very rare event lunchland working so we've got three different lens lens we know this is dc because one pin is slightly higher than the other and it should have had a little pip at the side so you can't insert it the wrong way around this one's a slightly different design so it's got the heater being the uh big loops multiple loops and the actual blower is the single wire going over the top i don't know if we can get on there probably not this one doesn't work anymore the heater and glower is uh totally headed so i cheated and i put halogen bulb in that one but the ballast and relay still works so three different types and at least uh we've seen one working at least so you can get clear ones frosted ones pole ones um just put it on there very carefully so it goes in there and a little twist and the little clip goes up he says to hold it in there quite sweet aren't they so just let me know when you're getting bored with videos and i'll stop doing them there's not much chance of that is there i hope you did find that interesting it's very rare and it's documented now it's on the internet and everybody can see it otherwise these things just sit in a box and they're never going to be seen so that's why i like youtube as well because i can put it on the internet and we can all share these wonderful things i know not everybody thinks these things are wonderful but you know that was nice isn't it i have to confess even for me that was quite an honor and a privilege to actually see one of those nerds lamps operate as it should do because as i say that is such a rare thing to see whether all intact and working it's just unbelievable really but i'm glad i shared it and i hope you enjoyed it there is always more where that come from i will see you very very soon thank you very much for watching bye [Music] you

Channel: Photonicinduction

Views: 115,690

Rating: 4.9891706 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: -spTvp5-sf0

Length: 18min 33sec (1113 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/MrCyberdragon]

I also saw a guy on YT showcasing and explaining how AC and DC arc lights work using real vintage fixtures.

He would definately like to see Photon's lamps.

Glassinger might be able to rebuild a heater and glower for the one that broke.