Atmospheric Electricity - Tiberius Cavallo and Mercury Lights

[Mabzynn]

Let me introduce you to Tiberius Cavallo:

He was an Italian physicist and natural philosopher. His interests included electricity, the development of scientific instruments, the nature of "airs", and ballooning. He became both a Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Naples, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1779. Between 1780 and 1792, he presented the Royal Society's Bakerian Lecture thirteen timees in succession.

Tiberius Cavallo was born on 30 March 1749 at Naples, Italy where his father was a physician. In 1771 he moved to England. He made several ingenious improvements in scientific instruments. Cavallo is often cited as the inventor of Cavallo's multiplier. He also developed a "pocket electrometer" that he used to amplify small electric charges to make them observable and measurable with an electroscope. Parts of the instrument were protected from drafts by a glass enclosure.

He also worked on refrigeration. Following the work of William Cullen in 1750 and Joseph Black in 1764, Cavallo was the first to carry out systematic experiments on refrigeration using the evaporation of volatile liquids, in 1781.

He was interested in the physical properties of "airs" or gases, and carried out experiments on "inflammable air" (hydrogen gas). In his Treatise on the Nature and Properties of Air (1781) he makes “a judicious examination of contemporary work", discussing both the phlogiston theory of Joseph Priestley and the contrasting views of Antoine Lavoisier. In June 1782, a paper of Cavallo's was read at the Royal Society, describing the first attempt to lift a hydrogen-filled balloon into the air.

Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge - 1851

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Extended section on Atmopsheric Electricity:

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Philosophical Transcations - 1815

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Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul - 1750 (reprinted 1817)

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Keep in mind the light bulb was not "invented" until 1879...

American Annual Encyclopedia - 1862









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Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science - 1860

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Muscatine Weekly Journal -1860

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The Photographic News - 1861

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Extracts from the Report of Her Britanic Majesty's Commissioners

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I wonder what happened to Professor (I think... T.J.) Way... definition of a ghost. Let me know if you can find him? Because this definitely isn't true:

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Resources on Cavallo:

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His complete book on electricity:
A Complete Treatise of Electricity in Theory and Practice; with original experiments - Google Play

His book on medical applications of electricity:
An Essay on the Theory and Practice of Medical Electricity - Google Play

His work on the atmosphere:
ETH-Bibliothek / A treatise on the nature and properties of air, and other permanently elastic fluids

His work on magnetism:
A Treatise on Magnetism, in Theory and Practice, With Original Experiments - Google Play

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[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-02-01 17:34:59
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I wonder what happened to Professor (I think... T.J.) Way... definition of a ghost. Let me know if you can find him? Because this definitely isn't true:

Wonder no more.
Thanks go to Gibiru J.T. Way

though Humphry Davy demonstrated the possibility of producing light from a discharge in mercury vapour as early as 1821 by maintaining an arc between a wire and a pool of mercury, it is to the British inventor Professor J.T. Way that credit must go for the first demonstration of a practical lamp. On September 3rd 1860 he completed an installation of modified carbon arc lamps on the Hungerford suspension bridge in London, in which the arc operated within a glass vessel containing air and a sizeable pool of mercury. The actual point of light generation in the carbon arc is the incandescence of the electrode tips, the arc itself being substantially non-radiative. But in J.T Way's lamp the heat from the discharge caused a small amount of mercury to evaporate, filling the glass chamber with its vapour, which was consequently ionised and imparted its blue-green colouration to the arc while also greatly increasing the total light output from this source.

Figure 7 - The Lamp of J.T. Way

He was duly granted a British Patent for this novel extension of carbon arc lighting technology. One point worthy of mention is the method employed for starting the arc in his lamp. With the ordinary carbon arc the discharge was struck by bringing one of the electrode tips into contact with the other, and then withdrawing it slightly, the arc initiating as soon as contact was broken. This inconvenient method was surpassed in the mercury lamp, in which the upper electrode was fabricated with a small hole running along its length. To strike the arc, part of the mercury was poured through this hollow electrode, falling into contact with the lower electrode and automatically initiating the discharge once the flow finished and contact was broken. The electrodes in the lamp were stationary and as they burned away during use, complex electrical control gear would have been necessary to adjust the electrical supply as the arc gap lengthened.

The health and safety issues associated with such a lamp would be horrendous today, since mercury was freely vaporised and released into the open atmosphere. Even their use outdoors would have been hazardous as a cloud of dense mercury vapour escaping from the lamps would have descended on passers by below. No other known installations of Way's lamp are known, and in view of its dramatically enhanced performance this seems unusual. It is probable that even in the mid 19th century there were concerns over the possible poisonous side-effects of the lamp he developed. Certainly at this time it was becoming known that mercury was a prominent neurotoxin, attacking the brain and spinal cord. Mercury compounds employed in the manufacture of felt, particularly favoured by hat-makers, were known for their undesirable side effects leading to premature dementia - hence the common phrase "mad as a hatter".

 

[Mabzynn]

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Username: Mabzynn
Date: 2020-02-01 19:28:39
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Where is the man J.T. Way? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_Way

That is also not an image or description of his actual patent.

Google even messed up his name so you couldn't find it organically : JoHNrHoMAs WAY

US33457A - John thomas way - Google Patents


US33458A - Improvement in electric lights - Google Patents





SOURCE

Here's a source with the whole description:

Specifications of Inventions...

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-02-01 19:54:39
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My understanding is the lamp in the drawing is the one installed or tested on Hungerford bridge in 1859. 1860
Ginbiru found this pdf http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/bulletin_open_access/v35-2/v35-2 p105-110.pdf where he and his invention get a mention with the site I posted as a reference.
Prof JT May doesn't appear to have invented anythng else although he does appear in print in two issues of The Engineer Magazine in the late 1850's.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2020-02-01 21:19:36
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There is some info on mercury lighting in this 1862 publication.

 

[PRIZM]

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Username: PRIZM
Date: 2020-02-04 02:13:55
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Just saw this video today

Electrickery | UAP

• Submitted
• 12/16/19

Antiquitech in HD Color of Electrickery - Phnom, Cambodia, ancient free energy atmospheric...

 

[Archive]

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Username: Recognition
Date: 2020-02-06 12:26:19
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This is perfect timing, because I was reading EM Forster’s novel “The Longest Journey”, and noticed this passage, chapter 5, page 102

This “cold violet radiance” of the “arc lamps” sound like a match to the “greenish blue” radiance of Way’s lamps. I tried to find some documentation of these types of lamps in the British museum, and found this:
What are your thoughts @Mabzynn @jd755 ?

 

[Archive]

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Username: welkyn
Date: 2020-02-06 12:30:07
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I had a quick look at mercury lighting the other day. I found this video, which represents something similar (albeit different) to the process described in the late 18th century:


That thin tube of lit mercury is either somewhere on the way towards, or a subsequent development from, the mechanism described and achieved by Cavallo. By this point (1900s) people were using mercury vapour as opposed to pseudo-compressed mercury filaments - but the principles at play are the same. This may be an answer to all of the "late 18th century lighting" we see in many woodcuts, esp. of indoor places, where teams of candle-lighters would have had a hard time maintaining a consistent level of lighting in e.g. theatres or opera houses. Lamps of one kind or another makes more sense - if mercury was as popular as described, it's the number one suspect.

Edit: then, of course, we have all of the copper-clad mercury spheres on old buildings/spires/railings etc. to consider. Possibility for these to be lights - and, if one wades through the build-up of mercury light videos on youtube, one will hopefully find those with variable wattages applied - the sheer amount of light and heat that mercury can express when electrified is certainly enough to create an "artificial moon" (well, were it not for the fact that moonlight is, oddly, colder than the ambience of night-earth).

 

[Archive]

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Username: Recognition
Date: 2020-02-06 12:34:40
Reaction Score: 1

I had a quick look at mercury lighting the other day. I found this video, which represents something similar (albeit different) to the process described in the late 18th century:


That thin tube of lit mercury is either somewhere on the way towards, or a subsequent development from, the mechanism described and achieved by Cavallo. By this point (1900s) people were using mercury vapour as opposed to pseudo-compressed mercury filaments - but the principles at play are the same. This may be an answer to all of the "late 18th century lighting" we see in many woodcuts, esp. of indoor places, where teams of candle-lighters would have had a hard time maintaining a consistent level of lighting in e.g. theatres or opera houses. Lamps of one kind or another makes more sense - if mercury was as popular as described, it's the number one suspect.

Edit: then, of course, we have all of the copper-clad mercury spheres on old buildings/spires/railings etc. to consider. Possibility for these to be lights - and, if one wades through the build-up of mercury light videos on youtube, one will hopefully find those with variable wattages applied - the sheer amount of light and heat that mercury can express when electrified is certainly enough to create an "artificial moon" (well, were it not for the fact that moonlight is, oddly, colder than the ambience of night-earth).

So cool!!! You see a ‘flickering’ as the gas passes through it, just like in these writings!!! So amazing!!!

 

[Archive]

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Username: Bemused
Date: 2020-02-08 00:32:07
Reaction Score: 5

I hope you see this as relevant as I am no electrical engineer but I have a favorite museum that I am reminded of. It is the Teylers Museum-the Museum of Wonder. Even Willy Wonka would love it here.
Teylers Museum is an art, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands... Established in 1778.

Teylers Museum – art, natural history and science museum – in Haarlem

There is a section on instruments from as far back as the 1700's. Most of them I do not understand.
This is their collection of electrostatic instruments.

Teylers Museum


My favorite is a large electrostatic generator with Leyden jars ..........This generator even has the leyden jars for storage of the charge. I believe the cathedrals and buildings with the domes and spires and star forts are the leyden jars for storing and releasing of the charge.
This video at 2:40 minutes shows you the machine working.


Here also, is a video by Global Vision which I think is relavent and enjoyable to watch.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Recognition
Date: 2020-02-09 01:29:34
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Light at 3:21 in the first vid is very blue violet!