Schenectady urban lighting 1880s-1910s

[CampKohler]

To locate Bldg. 31 on Street View, search for the right adjacent bldg. at 108 Erie. Bldg. 31 is marked Erie Crossing, LLC,, the address of which name I can't find on Google.

[racookster]

It's sort of a shame that solid state electronics and computers have made vacuum tubes and controls like the levers at 0:12 obsolete. They looked cool.

[CampKohler]

@racookster The trouble is that when you try to do anything of any complexity at all, the tubes and controls, along with the attendant power and cooling required multiply astronomically. For example, an Ipod would be the size of a city, county, state, the whole planet? And then nearly the entire human race would have to be employed as maintenance techs to keep it running, with the remainder manufactured replacement parts. No one would actually have the time to listen to it.

[racookster]

@CampKohler I know. But they still looked cool. I love all that old steampunk/Captain Nemo stuff.

I guy I used to work with -- an electronics tech for a zoo -- felt the same way, although he used solid state by then, of course. He'd been a technician at a radio station before that, and I recall him saying, "It was neat to watch the transmitter. The tubes were about this big..." he held his hands about 2 feet apart, "...and whenever the announcer modulated (spoke) they pulsed with blue light."

[CampKohler]

@racookster Vacuum tubes are supposed to have, well, nothing inside other than it's elements, of course. Flashing blue light implies that there is a gas inside that can light up. Maybe the tube was gassy and not long for this world. (There are other kinds of tubes that utilize gas inside to function, e.g. thyratrons, regulators and so forth.)

[racookster]

@CampKohler I'm pretty sure these were supposed to glow. As you said, some are. Considering the guy's job, if they weren't, he wouldn't have thought it looked neat. He would have thought it was a pain in the neck and gone about replacing them.

[CampKohler]

@racookster Little radio stations may have very tight budgets with the owners saying "As long as they can hear us, we won't buy new ones."

[racookster]

@CampKohler He worked for a big one though, 50,000 watts.

[CampKohler]

@racookster I dunno. Maybe it's a matter of degree. From Wikipedia: "Overheating [can cause] gas escaping into the tube; this can reduce performance. ...Control of the envelope temperature prevents some types of gassing. A tube with very bad internal gas may have a visible blue glow when plate voltage is applied. Gas and ions within the tube contribute to grid current which can disturb operation of a vacuum tube circuit." It has always been my understanding that gas is a bad thing.

[racookster]

@CampKohler Nah. In this case, the Wikipedia article is wrong. Some tubes are supposed to contain argon, krypton, neon or mercury. Others just fluoresce because the plate voltage is so high. If you Google "Blue Glow In Tubes FAQ" you'll get a good page on it. I'd give you a link, but YouTube won't let me.

Apparently you don't want to see it in a receiver, but in a transmitter or amplifier it's to be expected. My associate was working around a very big transmitter.

[CampKohler]

@racookster The FAQ makes sense. However, setting aside electron bombardment of the glass or elements, it doesn't speak to gas in transmitting tubes (vs. receiving and as opposed to regulators, thyratrons and others that rely on conducting gas for operation). So if the glow is coming from the space inside, I think that is not good. As far as H.V. goes, if there is no gas, there is nothing to break down no matter what the voltage. I hereby declare this horse not only dead, but thoroughly beaten.

[ZmajSnoshaj]

Man I bet that consumed craploads of electricity...

[form109]

Fascinating Video of Early Roadway Lighting!