The ever lasting lightbulb!

[soundiceuk]

Hi Folks!

Great community here, I love it!!!!!

Probably no better place to release this idea of mine and rediscovery of another one of the Great Nikola Tesla's overlooked patents.

According to Nikola Tesla patent:
Tesla Patent 454,622 - System of Electric Lighting

A minimum of 20,000 volts and 15-50khz pulse will light bulbs using one wire.

The potential and frequency of the voltage is great enough to excite the gas in the vacuum of a bulb. Much higher voltages and frequencies will also work.
It does explain many of the effects we have witnessed recently from other peoples experiments.

This means all these bulbs can be lit:

1. Incandescant
2. Fluorescent
3. Modified CFL
4. Neon
5. Metal Halide
6. High Pressure Sodium

The gas is in a vacuum and cannot escape. There is no current running through the light, so in theory the bulb lasts forever unless it is smashed.

The device to power it will only use milliamps and can be self powered using a solar panel and one of the many circuits that is currently being used, eg joule thief, ringer etc....

So far I have tried

2. Fluorescent
3. Modified CFL
5. Metal Halide
6. High Pressure Sodium

All bulbs produced light using one wire!!!!!!!

I am only using a Imhotep Radiant Oscillator Lite 5 pin relay circuit, but using two 6 volt lead acid batteries wired in series.
Imhoteps Labs

The frequency isn't high enough to get any of the bulbs, in particular the metal halide and high pressure sodium, lit to full brilliance. They have an interesting lightning effect inside though.

For anyone that doesn't know much about metal halide and high pressure sodium bulbs here is a very basic overview.

They are typically available in 250w, 400w, 600w & 1000w (although I have heard of higher ratings).

They are extremely common and are used in streetlights and horticultual growing.

They are usually powered by a ballast which produces a lot of heat. They have no filament and have a gas inside a vacuum. When they ignite, a spark is seen to arc inside the vacuum and then once the bulb is lit it uses a high current to keep it running.

I can see this one being very interesting.

Lumen / Lux output follows the inverse square law.

Horticultural growers main problem is heat from the bulbs. Using this method crops can be grown extremely cheaply and bulbs placed even touching the plant.

If you want to convince any non believers that they are living in Matrix and need to wake up, then this is it folks!!!!!!

I am having a custom transformer designed and manufactured and wondered whether anyone would be interested in a group buy?

The specs:

Ferrite Core
20Khz - 100Khz
12 volts to 25,000 volts

Any help towards our common goal will be greatly accepted with much gratitude!

[StweenyA]

I will give this a try sometime.... it's very interesting.

I recently successfully replicated the single wire experiment, using a very similar circuit to the one on JL Naudin's site..... It was very interesting to see the neon light turning on over a ~77cm single wire.
I noticed that at some frequencies it was very ineffective, but for my setup, ~6KHz seemed to be a sweet spot, but it would still go on or flicker on/off at ~1KHz more or less than that

[thephotovoltaic]

There are no losses on the wire ?

[dR-Green]

Hi soundice. Thanks for the info on the metal halide and sodium, I will have to get some of those I've been doing incandescents, these are some of the early results from nearly a couple of months ago. The output is much better now with a reduced input. The basic setup consists of a 555 circuit pulsing a flyback transformer through a spark gap into a flat spiral coil.

There is no current running through the light

I'm not so sure about that As you can see there is no arcing inside the bulb in these pics, the filament is lighting up indicating that there's some current there. Or so it indicates to me at least. It just doesn't need a closed loop like normal currents. If it does then the environment apparently closes the loop.

[soundiceuk]

Very interesting photographs. I love the one where three bulbs are lit with one wire!

I believe the filament appears to be lit as it is the closest point to the gas trapped within the glass.

1. What happens to an ampmeter in series?

2. Most importantly, do any of the bulbs produce any heat whatsoever?

Consider that if they do, what is the temperature increase factor as voltage or frequency raises?

Also what voltage and frequency were you operating at?

[Slider2732]

I've always held a perhaps naive view, that house wiring has only ever needed to be 1 wire and a Ground. What really is the point of 2 wires coming into and through your house, when it swaps polarity 60 times a second anyway ?
For lighting, there is really no need for either mains electricity or 2 wires and a Ground. Think of the savings if you are needing to rewire !

Benefits:
You can grab hold of a fully powered single wire and nothing happens, no shocks and at worst just a mild tingle.
Children can grab hold of the wire !
It can be accidentally cut through and all that happens is a light goes out 2 rooms away lol
Because of skin effect, where the power goes over the wire and not through the middle of it, wire gauge can be incredibly thin.
Overheating of wiring doesn't happen.
No chance of short circuits.
Taps at different places along the wire length can be anywhere and need not be permanent. Occasional lighting can be occasionally placed.
No ballasts required for fluorescent tubes.
More energy efficient.
Because of localised wireless fields, cellphones and other small devices can be charged near to the wire with a pickup coil or/and AV plug.
Radiated wireless energy is smaller the smaller the gauge of wire, dispelling health issue concerns. The same cannot be said for poorly designed/maintained/insulated electrical fuse boxes.

A decent Slayer circuit mini Tesla tower will light fluoro's over any distance you like in a house....last week I meant to do a video but the house was a mess of a single wire of approx 38 gauge running 20ft around and across our livingroom. On 12V from a little wall adapter, it powered a 2ft fluoro to good brightness from a 2" high mini tower.

A mini Tesla tower inside a regular fusebox and powering vacuum bulb house lighting seems a great idea. It could use 10th the voltage, near or less than the same current and have all the benefits listed above !

[soundiceuk]

I've always held a perhaps naive view, that house wiring has only ever needed to be 1 wire and a Ground. What really is the point of 2 wires coming into and through your house, when it swaps polarity 60 times a second anyway ?
For lighting, there is really no need for either mains electricity or 2 wires and a Ground. Think of the savings if you are needing to rewire !

Benefits:
You can grab hold of a fully powered single wire and nothing happens, no shocks and at worst just a mild tingle.
Children can grab hold of the wire !
It can be accidentally cut through and all that happens is a light goes out 2 rooms away lol
Because of skin effect, where the power goes over the wire and not through the middle of it, wire gauge can be incredibly thin.
Overheating of wiring doesn't happen.
No chance of short circuits.
Taps at different places along the wire length can be anywhere and need not be permanent. Occasional lighting can be occasionally placed.
No ballasts required for fluorescent tubes.
More energy efficient.
Because of localised wireless fields, cellphones and other small devices can be charged near to the wire with a pickup coil or/and AV plug.
Radiated wireless energy is smaller the smaller the gauge of wire, dispelling health issue concerns. The same cannot be said for poorly designed/maintained/insulated electrical fuse boxes.

I know electricians are taught the reason is because each house uses one of the phases of three phase electricity.

Two neighbours use the other phase and everyone has the same neutral, thats why power lines have 4 main wires.



As generators are typically wound in Delta or Star fashion, I am crazy for thinking what would happen if there was no neutral and three neighbours with the three phases unplugged the neutral? Would it, or wouldn't it work, if the coils were wound in Delta or Star?

[soundiceuk]

A decent Slayer circuit mini Tesla tower will light fluoro's over any distance you like in a house....last week I meant to do a video but the house was a mess of a single wire of approx 38 gauge running 20ft around and across our livingroom. On 12V from a little wall adapter, it powered a 2ft fluoro to good brightness from a 2" high mini tower.

A mini Tesla tower inside a regular fusebox and powering vacuum bulb house lighting seems a great idea. It could use 10th the voltage, near or less than the same current and have all the benefits listed above !

Haha!!! You've hit the nail on the head! The mini Tesla tower is very high voltage and high frequency!!!

Any idea what it runs at?

Have you got a Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium to try?

Please let me know if it gets hot

[Slider2732]

There we are, my naivety in full effect for the polyphase runnings

Mind you, any brushless R/C motor is a Delta or Star configuration. Delta for higher torque, Star for lower running amps. Rewound quite a few and I fly my own CD-Rom derived brushless outrunners on up to 7oz aircraft. So....some experimentation of your thoughts there are easily achieved, if you have a spare CD-Rom drive.

The frequencies of mini towers are around 2 to 4MHz. Plenty high enough to gain plasma discharges that you can play with without getting any type or form of shock from. Can even use your finger tips to discharge the plasma to, but it's not recommended because even though the fingers can't really feel it we don't know about long term nerve damage. It won't send ya flying across the room though like the inefficient system we all use today in our houses !

Got no fancy bulbs unfortunately. I nearly bought a kiddie lamp thing from a yard sale the other day for the small fluoro tube inside. Ended up getting a Franz LM-4 electro-mechanical metronome for my wife though with the $2. Turns out the Franz is historically important and worth a lot more, but I digress

[dR-Green]

I believe the filament appears to be lit as it is the closest point to the gas trapped within the glass.

1. What happens to an ampmeter in series?

2. Most importantly, do any of the bulbs produce any heat whatsoever?

Consider that if they do, what is the temperature increase factor as voltage or frequency raises?

Also what voltage and frequency were you operating at?

Good point. But I'm not convinced Yes the bulbs get pretty hot. As far as current/voltage goes, I think a better output is more closely related to a higher voltage (and higher frequency in this setup). But that's not to say it doesn't need any current, just that inputting more current doesn't give a better output RELATIVE to increasing the voltage. In other words you'd be better off increasing the voltage than trying to push more current through it.

The short answer to question 1 is I haven't tried it. I have a 10A RF ammeter but that's too much so I can't see any movement in the needle. I haven't dared to try any other meters yet.

Input voltage in these pics was 12v pulsing the flyback at around 8kHz. The coil is apparently resonant around 8MHz, and I have no idea what voltage is coming out of the flyback. But I have 13x 1000v diodes in series and they haven't popped yet, so I assume it's less than 13kv.

[willy96]

sometimes i get a good feeling ...
Flo Rida - Good Feeling [Official Video] - YouTube

what will be the source of the compleate device ?

W

[dR-Green]

Here's a couple of examples of one wire bulb lighting. It gets brighter when there are metal objects or wires connected to the other end of the filament, or in the case of this video, a bucket of soil. The input is between 500mA-1.5A depending on the transistor base resistance and spark gap size, with about 30v going through the flyback primary.

[edit] I keep turning it off when connecting the bucket of soil when it might seem I don't need to because I'm getting burned through the insulation.

One Wire Light Bulbs With Mini Tesla Coil - YouTube

[soundiceuk]

sometimes i get a good feeling ...
Flo Rida - Good Feeling [Official Video] - YouTube

what will be the source of the compleate device ?

W

I guess it could be a 12v battery, 12 DC from mains or even 12v battery topped off with solar panel using a bulb to power the panel in the night.

[Slider2732]

A lightbulb apparently never has the light output to put back more than it takes out...but...you've made me think a little about that and how we might limit the wasted energy

Hows about -
People have border wallpaper around rooms that maybe otherwise simply paint. Replace that border with an attractive homely solar line of small panels, that runs around the room. While lighting the room, the room itself is charging the panels and sending power back to the battery source.

Or, forgive my ignorance on the construction materials properties of solar panels, but could that traditionally very dark absorption layer be made of different colours (dark blue, browns, deep reds) ? If so, one might imagine an opacity factor - leading to the insides of lampshades being able to be made photovoltaic.
In any case, a solar panel need not be square and black, with little silver lines running through. It could be any shape.

Or, solar panel flooring, with a strong clear plastic layer to protect the panels. For large areas, say in the middle of rooms, that are not carpet covered, it could form another reuse option for night feeding of the battery source.

[kcarring]

Or, forgive my ignorance on the construction materials properties of solar panels, but could that traditionally very dark absorption layer be made of different colours (dark blue, browns, deep reds) ? If so, one might imagine an opacity factor - leading to the insides of lampshades being able to be made photovoltaic.

I've often thought similar thoughts, but I have been getting more and more into solar, have become a dealer - have now had extensive experience with using and testing polycrystalline, monocrystalline, amorphous.. and my latest acquisition is an HV panel (110v 1a 100 watt) thin film amorphous that is translucent, can be used as a window.

Here is the bottom line: Solar is not yet cheap. If there is more energy to be had outside, than any inside location; then, that is where the panel should live. It won't be until such a time that the "solar-paint" and associated technologies becomes so cheap, that its usage is comparable to the price of doing a job conventionally (i.e. wall covering, lampshades etc), that you will see it used in these indoor applications. And that won't happen until society adopts conventional usage. AND...that won't happen until every community will accept that we need to allow each home to install enough panels to provide a kilowatt, grid tie (no batteries) and give everyone plenty of incentive to do so. So the start, is to use the technology to your financial ability and fight the good fight against anti-solar attitudes. Fortunately, there have been some great studies, done recently, that completely back the type of social change that I am talking about, like this one from Harvard.

Definitely forward thinking, though, buddy! We will get there if we demand to officials that we can, and should get there.