ShmoopTube

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These days we don't know how to function without electricity seriously [Employee in a store standing by the counter as the lights cut out]

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watch it yes people are scary people really are scary anyway without

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electricity all the communication tools of our you know communication age

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wouldn't work our smartphones laptops tablets and TVs would just be lifeless [Smartphones, laptops and TV's all dead on a table]

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hunks of whatever cheap materials they made em out of in China and lots of

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electricity would affect more than just communication most of our appliances

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gadgets and thingamabobs are powered by [Electric eel electrocutes a fish]

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electricity. Blenders, toasters, vacuum cleaners and that annoying singing fish

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on old people's walls you know the don't worry be happy' fish that thing. Each [Fish on a wall singing]

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one needs electricity or needs to be smashed with a hammer but back in the

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1890s people hadn't started to dream of all these crazy things yet the craze

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back then with little simpler people wanted better lighting house not because [People in a poorly lit house walking into each other]

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they wanted more flattering photos but because the lighting they had kind of

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stunk in 1800s most cities burned coal gas for nighttime lighting. Four things we [Man burning coal outside]

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hate about coal gas lamps then no that's not a weird sequel to 10 Things I Hate

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About You. One: they were smoky and dirty Two: They had to be lit every night. Three:

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they released toxic fumes. Four: they could explode at any time say what you will [Fumes bellowing into the air and a coal lamp explodes]

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about that last one but it sure made bedtime story reading way more

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exciting so yep the need for better lighting was pretty serious though

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people got to work well the first electric light was called an arc lamp [An arc lamp dangling from the ceiling]

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and it was fairly simple it took two conductive rods packed them in a glass

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bulb with some gas and boom the electricity arc from one rod to the [Electricity moving from one rod to another in a glass bulb]

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other the cons, arc lamps take up a bunch of power and while they don't last very

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long still until late 1890s electric arc lamps were the only electric lighting in [Street of houses lighting goes out]

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town then came incandescent bulbs about 23

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different inventors came up with incandescent lightbulb before old Tommy

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Edison that didn't stop Tommy E from putting the smackdown on all 23 of them [Edison smashing a green fist onto a table]

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his design trumped the others in practical usefulness

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Edison's bulb worked like this; electricity first traveled up a wire in

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the glass bulb and then move through something called a filament the curly

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part of the lightbulb and here's a fun light bulb surprise the filament is made [Lightbulb highlighting the filament]

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of material that doesn't conduct electricity very well when the

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electricity meets this resistance some of it turns into heat and light and that's

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how Edison said let there be light kind of had a god complex [Edison preaching by a church window]

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but Tommy's ego aside the lightbulb changed modern lighting forever and it

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makes bedtime stories way safer [Girl turns bedside lamp on]

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