1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:20,560 Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and I love all things tech, And you know, guys, 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: I was trying to come up with a good idea 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:25,960 Speaker 1: for a holiday themed show. In the past, I've done 7 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: episodes about some of the big tech items that landed 8 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: on holiday wish lists in the past, you know, like 9 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: the greatest tech gifts of all time. But I felt 10 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 1: like I've been there, I've done that, And besides, a 11 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:40,960 Speaker 1: lot of those topics are like super timely and aren't 12 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,880 Speaker 1: relevant from year to year, so it makes no sense 13 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: to ever listen to them after the year they published. 14 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:49,199 Speaker 1: So instead of doing an episode that's going to be 15 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: irrelevant next year, I thought I would talk about Christmas 16 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: lights and how they work and why it was such 17 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: a pain in the neck to rig up special Christmas 18 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: lights for the Netflix series Stranger Things, which I've talked 19 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: about in a previous episode, but I figured it would 20 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 1: be a good point to return to in this one. Now, 21 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: before I dive into all of that, I want to 22 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,399 Speaker 1: acknowledge a few things First, while I'll be talking about 23 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: Christmas lights, there are many people of different faiths, ethnicities, regions, 24 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: etcetera who celebrates special days during the winter months, and 25 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: lights nearly always play an important part in those various observations, 26 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 1: which makes total sense because the days are shorter in 27 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: the winter and thus we have more hours of darkness 28 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,559 Speaker 1: for every twenty four hour period, so lights would clearly 29 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,119 Speaker 1: be an important part of any celebration during that part 30 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,399 Speaker 1: of the year. So, for example, the manora in the 31 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,959 Speaker 1: Jewish faith symbolizes how the Maccabees, when rededicating the Holy Temple, 32 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: which they had just won back from the Greeks, used 33 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: a single bottle of oil to light the manora used 34 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:56,680 Speaker 1: in the rededication ceremony for eight nights, even though the 35 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,640 Speaker 1: bottle should only have lasted a single night. Then there's 36 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 1: also the celebration of Quanza, where families like candles in 37 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: the cannara and the candles represent the seven principles of 38 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 1: the holiday. But getting back to Christmas lights, there's actually 39 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: an older tradition than the sort of Christmas tree lights, 40 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:20,360 Speaker 1: in which Christian families would set out candles within view 41 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: of a window as a symbol to alert fellow Christians 42 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: that the family inside the house was they were made 43 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: up of observing Christians, and that fellow Christians would be 44 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: welcome to come into that house to worship with the family. 45 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: But the Christmas lights we see every year really have 46 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:40,760 Speaker 1: their roots pun intended in a Germanic tradition of the 47 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: Christmas tree. So why would you ever cut down a 48 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: tree and bring it inside in the first place. Well, again, 49 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: one of those things that makes sense as you start 50 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,240 Speaker 1: to think about all the details. Plants like fur trees 51 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: and holly remain green even in the winter, which otherwise 52 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,560 Speaker 1: pretty much wipes out everything else and makes it brown 53 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 1: and dead, so or appearing to be dead. So these 54 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: plants became symbols of resilience and everlasting life. So people 55 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,360 Speaker 1: would cut down some of those plants and bring them 56 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: indoors to remind them of that. But you know, then 57 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: the plants would eventually just dry out and turn brown 58 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: and thus negate the whole reason for bringing them inside. 59 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,000 Speaker 1: But you know, humans have never been rational creatures. There 60 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: are some unsupported legends surrounding the origins of the German 61 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: Christmas tree UH, sometimes referred to as the Tannenbaum, but 62 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 1: really Tannenbaum is more of a word for fur trees 63 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,120 Speaker 1: in general, not just those all decked out with bowls 64 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: of holly and whatnot. But one legend has it that 65 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: Martin Luther, the reformer who caused a bit of a 66 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: ruckus in the fifteen hundreds when he, you know, decided 67 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: to criticize the Catholic Church, that he had started the 68 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: tradition of the Christmas tree. However, the earliest written accounts 69 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,960 Speaker 1: on record that mentioned this tradition date to six oh five. 70 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: Now that doesn't mean that's when the tradition started, of course, 71 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: it's just the earliest written account that we happen to have. 72 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: Scholars think the tradition might date back at least to 73 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:15,280 Speaker 1: the mid sixteenth century, though that would still be after 74 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: Martin Luther had died. So anyway, that sixteen o five account, 75 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:24,760 Speaker 1: all it says is that the people would set up 76 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: Christmas trees in their rooms in Strasbourg. There's no mention 77 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,840 Speaker 1: of lights in this particular account, but the decorations consisted 78 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,400 Speaker 1: of things like roses made out of paper and various 79 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: foods being shoved into the tree, things like apples or cookies, 80 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,720 Speaker 1: and sugar. It's very food centricum. In fact, there was 81 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:48,480 Speaker 1: a tradition of raiding the Christmas tree on one of 82 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:50,159 Speaker 1: the days of Christmas, where the kids get to go 83 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: and actually grab treats from the tree and eat them. 84 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 1: The first written account to bring up the detail about 85 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:02,159 Speaker 1: lights in the Christmas tree dates to sixteen sixty. People 86 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,919 Speaker 1: in Germany would pin or otherwise attached candles to branches 87 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: of these trees, and again, frequently these are trees that 88 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:11,640 Speaker 1: have been cut down and put up inside a house, 89 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:15,679 Speaker 1: not just trees out in the woods somewhere. Generally speaking, 90 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,320 Speaker 1: the practice was to light the candles only for a 91 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: very short time before you blew them out again. And 92 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:24,520 Speaker 1: you were never supposed to leave a tree unattended, because, 93 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:28,040 Speaker 1: as you can imagine, combining a cut tree that might 94 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:32,200 Speaker 1: be kind of dry with open flames is a recipe 95 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: for disaster. And in fact, there were more than a 96 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,840 Speaker 1: few cases of fires with these trees, some of them 97 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: ending in catastrophe and tragedy. But I'm sure the effect 98 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: was really nice leading right up to the moment where 99 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,880 Speaker 1: everything went ablaze. Okay, so let's skip ahead to the 100 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:50,720 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. At that point, the tradition extended beyond Germany. 101 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:56,760 Speaker 1: UH Harvard professor named Charles Fallen, inspired by stories that 102 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: he had heard in Europe, did a lit up Christmas 103 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 1: tree in America. This was believed to be the first 104 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 1: lit Christmas tree in America, or at least the first 105 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,920 Speaker 1: one on record. In the eighteen forties, in England, Queen 106 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 1: Victoria and Prince Albert had a Christmas tree famously depicted 107 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: in an illustration that was published in a newspaper that 108 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 1: likely helped boost the practice over in England. Prince Albert 109 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,240 Speaker 1: brought this over from his homeland in Saxony. So people 110 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,480 Speaker 1: came up with new ways to attach the candles to trees, 111 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: you know, they found more improved methods that would catch 112 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: the wax and things like that. However, there was still 113 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:38,479 Speaker 1: very much a danger of fire with this particular approach. Then, 114 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:41,560 Speaker 1: in the later eighteen hundreds we get to Thomas Edison, 115 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:44,920 Speaker 1: the inventor and entrepreneur who was spending a lot of 116 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: time and resources trying to perfect the light bulb. Which 117 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:51,479 Speaker 1: he did not invent the light bulb, but he did 118 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:54,239 Speaker 1: improve upon it, or rather, I should say his lab 119 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 1: improved upon it. So when he and his engineers managed 120 00:06:57,800 --> 00:06:59,720 Speaker 1: to make a light bulb that could last more than 121 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: just a few hours and could be suitable for general use, 122 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,599 Speaker 1: as opposed to stuff like the more dangerous arc lamps that, 123 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: while extremely bright, were not practical for everyday applications. He 124 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:13,240 Speaker 1: then had to figure out a way, how do I 125 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: sell this idea to cities, right to city officials, and 126 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,200 Speaker 1: then further onto the general public. So he wanted to 127 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 1: convince Manhattan officials that his company should be the one 128 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: to provide electricity and light all of Manhattan. So he 129 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: had his employees hang lights during the holiday season in 130 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty on the outside of Menlo Park, which was 131 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: an easy view of trains passing by, and it got 132 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:41,120 Speaker 1: a lot of attention. Now, one of the inventors who 133 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:45,960 Speaker 1: was working at his Menlo Park facility was Edward Hibbert Johnson. 134 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: Johnson had actually been responsible for giving Edison a job 135 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:53,760 Speaker 1: at the Automatic Telegraph Company, but later on Johnson would 136 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:57,120 Speaker 1: end up working closely with Edison to develop Menlo Park 137 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: itself and became an inventor and executive at the Edison 138 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: Light Company. So it's funny because he helped get Edison 139 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:06,480 Speaker 1: a job early, and then he ended up working for Edison. 140 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: Later it was at the Menlo Park facility where Johnson 141 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: developed string lights, and these were lights that were wired 142 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: together in series and would serve as the basis for 143 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 1: Christmas lights. Just moving forward from that point, he used 144 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: those lights to decorate a Christmas tree, and so Johnson 145 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 1: is sometimes referred to as the father of electric Christmas 146 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: tree lights because the original version, the earlier version that 147 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: Edison did that was a string of lights they hung 148 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:35,920 Speaker 1: up on a building. This was the first time where 149 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:40,079 Speaker 1: someone was using electric Christmas lights to replace the candles 150 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,839 Speaker 1: that were found on the Germanic Christmas trees. His lights, 151 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 1: by the way, had bulbs that were red, white, and blue. 152 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:50,840 Speaker 1: Is quite the patriotic Christmas tree. And like Edison, Johnson 153 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: intended that for this not just to be a festive 154 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: display in the spirit of America and the holiday season, 155 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: but also a marketing effort to get more people to 156 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: support and want and adopt electric lights. There was a 157 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:09,240 Speaker 1: general distrust in electricity around this time, so these were 158 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: the ways in which Edison and his associates could try 159 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:15,640 Speaker 1: to win people over to this new technology, and adoption 160 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:18,040 Speaker 1: did not take off right away. So for one thing, 161 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,000 Speaker 1: no New York based reporters wrote about this Christmas tree 162 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:25,800 Speaker 1: at all, but one reporter for a Detroit newspaper did 163 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: publish an account of what it was like seeing the 164 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:32,160 Speaker 1: Christmas tree all lit up. The next big development in 165 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:36,360 Speaker 1: the adoption of Christmas lights would come in eight when 166 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: US President Grover Cleveland incorporated them in decorations for the 167 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:43,360 Speaker 1: Christmas Tree at the White House. So we're gonna go 168 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:46,160 Speaker 1: off on a little tangent here some fun trivia facts 169 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: about Grover Cleveland. So he's the only US president whoever 170 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:55,480 Speaker 1: served two non consecutive terms, meaning he was both our 171 00:09:55,520 --> 00:09:59,559 Speaker 1: twenty second and our twenty fourth president of the United States. 172 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: The lighting of the Christmas tree would be during his 173 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: second term as president. And just in case you're wondering 174 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: the twenty third president, the one who interrupted those two 175 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: terms was Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of our ninth President, 176 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:18,599 Speaker 1: William Henry Harrison. Sorry, recently, I've been showing up on 177 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:21,480 Speaker 1: a lot of ridiculous history episodes, and sometimes that stuff 178 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:27,280 Speaker 1: just gonna sticks with you anyway. Cleveland's Tree. Grover Cleveland's 179 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: tree featured one hundred lights with bulbs of various colors, 180 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:33,520 Speaker 1: and it must have been a really impressive site for 181 00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:36,640 Speaker 1: the time. Some of the movers and shakers in America, 182 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:40,240 Speaker 1: in other words, people had a ton of cash to burn. 183 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:43,199 Speaker 1: They began to put up their own decorated and lit 184 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: Christmas trees. But it was not something the average person 185 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: could do because at that time most of the United 186 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:52,720 Speaker 1: States wasn't wired for electricity, so to even have a 187 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,480 Speaker 1: lit Christmas tree with electric lights, you would have to 188 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:58,960 Speaker 1: set up a generator. You'd also typically have to hire 189 00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 1: an electrician to actually wire it up, and in today's money, 190 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 1: that would mean that decorating a tree could cost at 191 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:09,400 Speaker 1: least a couple of thousands of dollars, so only the 192 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:12,199 Speaker 1: hoity toity folks who wanted to show off their wealth 193 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:14,520 Speaker 1: could really afford to have a Christmas tree with electric 194 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,760 Speaker 1: lights at that time. Anyway, over the course of the 195 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:21,679 Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, electric lights began to gain popularity as 196 00:11:21,679 --> 00:11:25,120 Speaker 1: people became more comfortable with the idea of electricity. And 197 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:27,920 Speaker 1: it's really no wonder that folks were nervous at first. 198 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:31,640 Speaker 1: Fire is something you can see, at least in most cases, 199 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: but electricity could be deadly but was also invisible, and 200 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,760 Speaker 1: Edison's company had already engaged in some pretty heavy smear 201 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: campaigns against alternating current, since Edison was pushing direct current 202 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:47,520 Speaker 1: as a means to distribute electricity regionally, and a lot 203 00:11:47,559 --> 00:11:51,199 Speaker 1: of those events and demonstrations that his company held involves 204 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:54,880 Speaker 1: showing off how deadly electricity could be, so they were 205 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:57,960 Speaker 1: kind of feeding into that fear. But the allure of 206 00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:01,199 Speaker 1: the lights was undeniable. And with that, I mean not 207 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:03,480 Speaker 1: just Christmas lights, I mean you're run of the mill 208 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 1: light bulbs now. Even in nineteen o three when General 209 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:11,439 Speaker 1: Electric introduced string Christmas light kits, which will let people 210 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,160 Speaker 1: string up their own lights at home without necessarily the 211 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: use of an electrician, it was still really expensive a 212 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: string of lights, and General Electric actually referred to these 213 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: strings as festoons anyway. The string of lights consisted of 214 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:28,840 Speaker 1: eight whole light bulb sockets and they would hold Edison 215 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:32,240 Speaker 1: light bulbs, and it cost the equivalent of about three 216 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: hundred dollars today. That's just the lights, and this was 217 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: not something that the average family would necessarily spring for. Also, 218 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:41,920 Speaker 1: you wouldn't buy these kits, you would rent them for 219 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,920 Speaker 1: three hundred dollars, So after the rental period you would 220 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:48,200 Speaker 1: actually have to return them, so yikes. Now, the bulbs 221 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: on these things were small, round bulbs, almost like manature 222 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:55,760 Speaker 1: incandescent light bulbs. Actually that's exactly what they were, but 223 00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:58,200 Speaker 1: I'm talking more about the form factor rather than the 224 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:03,280 Speaker 1: actual lighting mechanism. In nineteen nineteen, General Electric introduced a 225 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:06,120 Speaker 1: new bulb shape and filament. It was more of a 226 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 1: flame shape, is that sort of classic, large, kind of clunky, 227 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:13,080 Speaker 1: retro looking light bulb. That was the general shape that 228 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: they introduced, and it had a filament made out of 229 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:20,000 Speaker 1: Mazda toungusten. The filament is the part of the incandescent 230 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:23,360 Speaker 1: bulb that actually glows. The company would use Mazda filaments 231 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 1: in all sorts of lamp bulbs, not just Christmas ones. Now, 232 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: there were a couple of possibly apocryphal stories about some 233 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: smaller companies around this time that played an important role 234 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: in popularizing Christmas lights. One of those stories is about 235 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,600 Speaker 1: a telephone company employee named Ralph E. Morris who at 236 00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:44,920 Speaker 1: some point. Different versions of this story can date it 237 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: to either eight, the same year that Grover Cleveland was 238 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,760 Speaker 1: lighting up the White House, or nineteen o eight. There's 239 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,720 Speaker 1: a pretty big discrepancy, but the stories say that he 240 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: looked at a telephone switchboard, and telephone switchboards had these 241 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,760 Speaker 1: little tiny light bulbs mounted in them that would light 242 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,480 Speaker 1: up when you were making connections, and he thought those 243 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:06,920 Speaker 1: little light bulbs might make nice Christmas decorations. So he 244 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:09,320 Speaker 1: took a bunch of those little lightbulbs, a bunch of 245 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:13,600 Speaker 1: telephone wire, wired them all together, electrified the wire, and 246 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:17,600 Speaker 1: made up a little lit Christmas tree, a little fake 247 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 1: lit Christmas tree, because the story says that he made 248 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:24,880 Speaker 1: a makeshift Christmas tree out of feathers. I don't know 249 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,920 Speaker 1: exactly how he did it, but that's what the story says. 250 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:30,400 Speaker 1: His son would later write an article claiming that his 251 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:36,280 Speaker 1: father invented Christmas lights, which wasn't quite accurate. They predated this, 252 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure it was an honest mistake, not 253 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:44,480 Speaker 1: something that was done, you know, maliciously. Now. The other, 254 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:48,480 Speaker 1: possibly an apocryphal story involves a guy named Albert Sadaka. 255 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:52,280 Speaker 1: This story goes that when Sedaka was fifteen, he heard 256 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:56,040 Speaker 1: about a terrible tragedy involving a deadly fire that began 257 00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:59,400 Speaker 1: when a Christmas tree lit with candles caught fire and 258 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:03,520 Speaker 1: be died. As a result. His family made novelty lights 259 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:06,840 Speaker 1: with white bulbs, So he thought, hey, how about we 260 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:11,080 Speaker 1: change out those regular bulbs with bulbs of different colors 261 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:13,600 Speaker 1: and we use electric lights instead of candles to light 262 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:16,560 Speaker 1: up a Christmas tree. According to this story, he and 263 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:18,720 Speaker 1: his brothers began to do just that, and a few 264 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:21,440 Speaker 1: years later they led an effort to bring together several 265 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,120 Speaker 1: small competing light companies. They're all going for the same customers, 266 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 1: and they formed the National Outfit Manufacturers Association, or NOMA, 267 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 1: which would become its own company and by became the 268 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: leading manufacturing company for electric Christmas lights. Now, as power 269 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:40,520 Speaker 1: companies wired up the United States for electricity, the popularity 270 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:43,880 Speaker 1: of electric Christmas lights began to grow. In nineteen twenty, 271 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 1: a hardware store owner in California named Frederick Nash decorated 272 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 1: trees outside his establishment, and that quickly grew into a 273 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,560 Speaker 1: tradition in which a nine block stretch of the road 274 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 1: in front of his business would end up having trees 275 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,160 Speaker 1: just draped in lights, and it became the first big 276 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:04,120 Speaker 1: documented door Christmas lights display. When we come back, i'll 277 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:06,600 Speaker 1: talk more about the evolution of Christmas lights, and then 278 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: we'll dive into how the heck they work, and in 279 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:13,720 Speaker 1: the case of traditional Christmas lights, how they don't work 280 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:16,640 Speaker 1: if just one bulb goes bad. But let's take a 281 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: quick break. I've got a little bit more to go 282 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: on to the history of Christmas lights and some of 283 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:31,240 Speaker 1: the interesting things about them before we get into how 284 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 1: they work. So by the late nineteen thirties, electric Christmas 285 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 1: lights had become a popular new tradition, with homeowners and 286 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 1: businesses alike uh using them to create bright, colorful displays, 287 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: and in some cases they went a little bit overboard. 288 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:51,280 Speaker 1: A few places became truly famous for their decorated trees 289 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:54,360 Speaker 1: and buildings. When the United States entered into World War 290 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:56,600 Speaker 1: Two and there was a concern about the possibility of 291 00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:00,360 Speaker 1: cities being bombed, there were blackout orders in various cities 292 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:02,960 Speaker 1: like New York, and that meant that Christmas lights would 293 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:06,240 Speaker 1: actually go dark in nineteen four in New York City. 294 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:08,760 Speaker 1: But with the war's end the following year, people made 295 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:13,160 Speaker 1: up for lost time. Meanwhile, tastes began to change in America. 296 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:16,679 Speaker 1: Families in the late nineteen fifties were introduced to a 297 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:22,000 Speaker 1: new invention, the aluminium Christmas tree. Yeah, I can't even 298 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:25,440 Speaker 1: I can't believe this this really happened either, guys. These 299 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 1: were trees made out of aluminium, a space age material 300 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:32,480 Speaker 1: that was clearly so much better than a freshly cut 301 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:36,240 Speaker 1: fir tree. However, the Christmas lights of the day, which 302 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:42,080 Speaker 1: were still incandescent bulbs in sometimes questionable wires, would get 303 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,600 Speaker 1: way too hot for aluminium trees. They also could potentially 304 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:51,560 Speaker 1: create an electric shock hazard because aluminium can conduct electricity. Plus, 305 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:55,320 Speaker 1: those aluminum trees had needles quote unquote made out of foil, 306 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:59,159 Speaker 1: which would easily melt. So instead of hanging electric lights 307 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,960 Speaker 1: on the tree, companies began to manufacture lamps that had 308 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 1: a rotating color wheel. And it's just what it sounds like, 309 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:09,960 Speaker 1: and it's not all that different from what was inside 310 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:14,240 Speaker 1: old mechanical television sets before electric TV was invented. So 311 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:17,480 Speaker 1: you've got a bulb that's what provides the light, kind 312 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:19,600 Speaker 1: of like a projector, and in front of the bulb, 313 00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:23,680 Speaker 1: you have a wheel that has different pains of colored plastic, 314 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:28,199 Speaker 1: and this wheel rotates past the bulb and different colors 315 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:32,440 Speaker 1: of light shine out of your glorious lamp towards your 316 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: even more glorious aluminum Christmas tree. It was a thing y'all. Now, 317 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:41,879 Speaker 1: I can't say I personally found it appealing, but back 318 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:46,800 Speaker 1: then it was selling like gangbusters. Unfortunately, for companies like Noma, 319 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,280 Speaker 1: the leading manufacturer of Christmas lights, it meant that there 320 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 1: was a drastic drop in Christmas lights sales as these 321 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,239 Speaker 1: aluminum trees became all the rage. Noma would actually end 322 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:00,240 Speaker 1: up going into bankruptcy and today it exists as a 323 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:03,480 Speaker 1: brand name. But that's about it. The era of the 324 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,400 Speaker 1: aluminum tree lasted about a decade, upon which time many 325 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 1: people either went back to using the previously live trees 326 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,719 Speaker 1: or they switched to more natural looking artificial trees, and 327 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:19,840 Speaker 1: that meant the electric lights were back baby. However, because 328 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,879 Speaker 1: of the American manufacturers going out of business during the 329 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,639 Speaker 1: rain of aluminum terror, the Christmas lights on the market 330 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,879 Speaker 1: mostly came from other countries, so America would no longer 331 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:34,280 Speaker 1: be king of the electric Christmas light. All right. Now, 332 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:37,199 Speaker 1: we're getting up to about nineteen seventy and the introduction 333 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 1: of the mini light. So for a very long time, 334 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,080 Speaker 1: the typical Christmas light was a five or ten watt bulb, 335 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,479 Speaker 1: typically the size of a night light bulb, those little 336 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:50,760 Speaker 1: kind of cone shaped bulbs that I was talking about 337 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,639 Speaker 1: the retro style. They're pretty big. Uh. These were the 338 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:55,479 Speaker 1: type of lights that I grew up with when I 339 00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:57,480 Speaker 1: was a kid. That's the kind we had on our trees, 340 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:01,960 Speaker 1: the big, big bright lights. I still missed those. But 341 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,399 Speaker 1: they drew a lot of power because a string of 342 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,200 Speaker 1: fifty five what bulbs means that you're consuming two fifty 343 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:12,400 Speaker 1: what's and most people were using multiple strands, like one 344 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:15,000 Speaker 1: string wouldn't do it. You might have three strands, three 345 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,679 Speaker 1: to five for a tree, maybe five to ten for 346 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:20,640 Speaker 1: your house. So you're consuming an enormous amount of power 347 00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:23,399 Speaker 1: when you're having this stuff lit up. So the Christmas 348 00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:27,080 Speaker 1: lights were greedy for electricity. Then they pushed electric bills 349 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: pretty high. They would also get really hot, which you 350 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:33,720 Speaker 1: know I mentioned back with the aluminium trees. Touching a 351 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,399 Speaker 1: bulb could give you a little bit of a minor burn, 352 00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 1: as I found out on more than one occasion when 353 00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:42,320 Speaker 1: I was a kid, because I had three qualities that 354 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 1: guaranteed I was gonna get burned. First, I was curious. Second, 355 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,399 Speaker 1: I was foolish or maybe stupid, and third I had 356 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:55,400 Speaker 1: a really short memory, I guess. Anyway, the bulbs were popular, 357 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:59,120 Speaker 1: and they were colorful, but they were also wasteful and expensive. 358 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:04,560 Speaker 1: The many light would become a popular alternative to that bulky, hot, 359 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:08,119 Speaker 1: expensive Christmas light of the past. The many lights are, 360 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:12,119 Speaker 1: as the name implies, smaller. They only need two point 361 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:16,120 Speaker 1: five volts of electricity, and they don't get nearly as hot. 362 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 1: Although they are still incandescent bulbs, so they still do 363 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,679 Speaker 1: generate heat, they're just not as hot as those larger 364 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:25,239 Speaker 1: bulbs were. It does, however, raise a question, how do 365 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,800 Speaker 1: you supply electricity to a two and a half volt 366 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:33,040 Speaker 1: socket if your source is an outlet that's putting out 367 00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: a hundred twenty volts. This is a good time to 368 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:40,360 Speaker 1: transition into a talk about circuits. So a quick reminder 369 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 1: in electricity, voltage is sort of like water pressure in 370 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:48,640 Speaker 1: a water system. It's how hard the electricity is being 371 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:50,720 Speaker 1: pushed through. You can think of it like that. It's 372 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: not exactly the same, but that's a rough analogy. It's 373 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:59,199 Speaker 1: the behind the movement of electricity, and a volts supply 374 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: are overshadows a two and a half volt load. So 375 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:07,360 Speaker 1: imagine like having a fire hose of water directed at you. 376 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:09,600 Speaker 1: You've got a little shot glass that you're filling up 377 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:11,400 Speaker 1: and dumping out. It would just be way too much. 378 00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:16,280 Speaker 1: But these Christmas lights were chained together in series, which 379 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:20,560 Speaker 1: meant one bulb socket connects to the next bulb socket 380 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:23,880 Speaker 1: in the same circuit and so on. So if you've 381 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:27,080 Speaker 1: got two two and a half volt sockets, you end 382 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 1: up with a load that requires five volts. If you 383 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:32,439 Speaker 1: were to multiply two and a half volts by I 384 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,680 Speaker 1: don't know, let's say forty eight, you'd get a hundred twenty. 385 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:39,399 Speaker 1: So yeah, if you string together forty eight light bulb 386 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:41,359 Speaker 1: sockets and each one of those is a two and 387 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: a half volt socket, you end up with a full 388 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,280 Speaker 1: load what requires a hundred twenty volts. Problem solved now. 389 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:51,400 Speaker 1: Typically companies would actually bump that up to fifty light 390 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: sockets per series, and those extra two sockets would mean 391 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,679 Speaker 1: that each individual bulb would be slightly, maybe even in 392 00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:03,359 Speaker 1: per sceptibly dimmer than it would be if you only 393 00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:06,439 Speaker 1: had forty eight, but it wouldn't be so dim that 394 00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:10,359 Speaker 1: it would make a huge difference. So imagine a pathway 395 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:14,159 Speaker 1: from an electric outlet that goes down a line of wires, 396 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,679 Speaker 1: and those wires connect to fifty bulbs in series. So 397 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,239 Speaker 1: bulb one, the bulb, two, the bulb three, etcetera. This 398 00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 1: represents the path that electricity takes, and along the way, 399 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,440 Speaker 1: the electricity is doing work in the form of producing 400 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:30,639 Speaker 1: light with those little light bulbs. And here's where a 401 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,199 Speaker 1: drawback of Christmas lights comes in. Let's say one of 402 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,080 Speaker 1: those bulbs burns out. Well, a burnt out bulb is 403 00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,639 Speaker 1: going to break that pathway for the electricity. It opens 404 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:44,440 Speaker 1: the circuit, and because the path is broken and electricity 405 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:48,639 Speaker 1: needs that clear, unbroken path, the whole string of lights 406 00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: will go out. This is how Christmas lights used to be, 407 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,720 Speaker 1: where you'd have to go down a line of dark 408 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,520 Speaker 1: lights and you would swap out one bulb for another, 409 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,600 Speaker 1: over and over. You would be searching of the one 410 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,560 Speaker 1: bulb that caused the problem. And often it would lead 411 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:07,000 Speaker 1: to people chucking out a string entirely and just replacing 412 00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:09,720 Speaker 1: it because trying to find that one bird's out bulb 413 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,800 Speaker 1: and a string of fifty just wasn't fun. And it 414 00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,800 Speaker 1: was even worse if more than one bulb had been affected, 415 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,560 Speaker 1: because you might replace one bad bulb and never know 416 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,399 Speaker 1: it because there's a second or third bad bulb in 417 00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:24,600 Speaker 1: that same string. It was infuriating now on top of that, 418 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:30,119 Speaker 1: later electric lights would have even longer strings like one hundred, hundred, 419 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,920 Speaker 1: fifty or two hundred lights. Not in order to achieve this, 420 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:36,880 Speaker 1: because I was just talking about how if you put 421 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:41,000 Speaker 1: these in series it creates that greater load. Well, engineers 422 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,280 Speaker 1: were able to kind of cheat with this. They were 423 00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:48,080 Speaker 1: using both series circuits and parallel circuits for these lights. Now, 424 00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 1: as I mentioned, a series circuit strings one electric load 425 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:55,119 Speaker 1: after another along the same electrical path or circuit. So 426 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,040 Speaker 1: you can think of that as like one long street 427 00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:59,479 Speaker 1: with houses on either side of the street, and houses 428 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,760 Speaker 1: represent a load on the electric circuit. So in this example, 429 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:05,280 Speaker 1: with a string that has fifty lights, think of a 430 00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:09,440 Speaker 1: street and there are fifty houses twenty five on either 431 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:11,560 Speaker 1: side of the street. So to visit a house a 432 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:13,760 Speaker 1: little further down the street, you have to pass all 433 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:18,240 Speaker 1: the other ones first. Parallel circuits create multiple paths, a 434 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:22,560 Speaker 1: an independent pathway for each circuit, so different loads are 435 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,879 Speaker 1: on their own distinct pathways. So with a string of 436 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,240 Speaker 1: one fifty Christmas lights, for example, you would actually have 437 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:34,840 Speaker 1: three fifty lights series circuits. Right, So you've got one 438 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: string of fifty lights in series, a second string of 439 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:41,919 Speaker 1: fifty lights in series and a third string of fifty 440 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,760 Speaker 1: lights in series, but all three are then connected in 441 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,480 Speaker 1: parallel with each other in the street analogy, this would 442 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,439 Speaker 1: be like having three parallel streets that all connect to 443 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,440 Speaker 1: the same main road. Now, with this kind of string 444 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,320 Speaker 1: of lights, if one bulb were to go out, only 445 00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:01,159 Speaker 1: the other bulbs in that same series circuit would go dark. 446 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:04,240 Speaker 1: So with a hundred fifty light string, it would mean 447 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:06,600 Speaker 1: one third of those lights would go dark. Right, fifty 448 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:08,960 Speaker 1: lights would go out, but the other one hundred would 449 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 1: stay lit because they were actually still in those parallel circuits. 450 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:17,960 Speaker 1: They were independent of that one fifty light string. You 451 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:19,800 Speaker 1: still have a problem with a third of your lights 452 00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:23,120 Speaker 1: going dark, though, Engineers figured out how to solve this 453 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:27,760 Speaker 1: issue by creating what's called a shunt. Now, essentially, a 454 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: shunt is an alternative circuitry path that electricity can pass 455 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,080 Speaker 1: through even if a load has otherwise failed. So in 456 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: this case, if a light bulb were to burn out, 457 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,560 Speaker 1: the light bulb would go dark, but the shunt would 458 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:44,680 Speaker 1: take over as the path for electricity to flow through, 459 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: and that way the other bulbs in that series would 460 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:52,080 Speaker 1: still stay lit. So how does that work? Well? First, 461 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:56,600 Speaker 1: the shunt is lined with insulating material and that boosts 462 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:01,280 Speaker 1: the electric resistance of the shunt. This is important because 463 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,040 Speaker 1: if the shunt had an equal or lower electrical resistance, 464 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,640 Speaker 1: then the filament inside the lightbulb, the electricity would bypass 465 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,919 Speaker 1: the bulb altogether and just go through the shunt. That 466 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 1: means you wouldn't have a string of Christmas lights insteaid. 467 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:19,119 Speaker 1: You would have a really bad extension cord that was 468 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,239 Speaker 1: eating up a lot of power. And more than that, 469 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:23,359 Speaker 1: it would start to heat up and could potentially pose 470 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,600 Speaker 1: as a fire hazard, and that's no bueno. So this 471 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,879 Speaker 1: is a good opportunity to talk about short circuits. A 472 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:33,919 Speaker 1: short circuit and I am not talking about the movie 473 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,639 Speaker 1: that featured Johnny five the robot. A short circuit is 474 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: when electricity encounters a pathway of lower resistance than the 475 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,879 Speaker 1: path it is supposed to follow. And yeah, the path 476 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,919 Speaker 1: of least resistance is a thing. We see it in 477 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:50,359 Speaker 1: nature all the time. If there are multiple ways for 478 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: something to happen, the way that has the least obstacles 479 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:56,240 Speaker 1: tends to be the one we end up with. So 480 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,280 Speaker 1: electricity is going through its circuit. Do do, do, do 481 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,199 Speaker 1: and suddenly there's a detour. Something has made contact with 482 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:07,199 Speaker 1: the circuit that represents a lower resistance pathway. The electricity 483 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,439 Speaker 1: takes the lower resistance pathway. That's just nature. The electricity 484 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: skips out on doing whatever it was supposed to do, 485 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,040 Speaker 1: like light a light bulb, and rushes down this new path. 486 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:20,919 Speaker 1: Now at a steady voltage, this means you get a 487 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,359 Speaker 1: spike in current. This is because the voltage is that 488 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 1: pressure I was talking about, and the pressure remains the same, 489 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,520 Speaker 1: but the reduction in electrical resistance means it's easier for 490 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,080 Speaker 1: electricity to flow through that part of the circuit, So 491 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,840 Speaker 1: the current has to increase. We expressed this mathematically by 492 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:43,720 Speaker 1: saying voltage is current times resistance. So if voltage is 493 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:50,280 Speaker 1: staying the same, it's not changing and electrical resistance is decreasing. Current, 494 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: by mathematical definition, has to increase to make up the difference, 495 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:59,000 Speaker 1: and an increase in current can become dangerous or even deadly. 496 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,720 Speaker 1: Now but because of that risk, engineers began to include 497 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,480 Speaker 1: fuses in Christmas lights. The fuse in a Christmas light 498 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 1: is kind of a strip of thin wire that's near 499 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,480 Speaker 1: the plug end of a string of lights. The part 500 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,880 Speaker 1: that actually plugs into the wall. That's where the fuse is. 501 00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,920 Speaker 1: It's rated for a certain maximum of current, and if 502 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: the current increases beyond that maximum because of a short 503 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:28,000 Speaker 1: typically then this wire will actually kind of burn through 504 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,240 Speaker 1: and then it leaves a gap, and that gap ends 505 00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:34,760 Speaker 1: up having such a high electrical resistance that electricity cannot 506 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,280 Speaker 1: flow through the string of lights and they all go dark. 507 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,520 Speaker 1: So the fuse is typically replaceable, and in these strings 508 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,479 Speaker 1: of lights you can even open up a little window 509 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:45,720 Speaker 1: and put in a replacement fuse if the one that 510 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:47,640 Speaker 1: you have in there has burnt out for any reason. 511 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:50,760 Speaker 1: So that is sort of a safety measure in case 512 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:52,680 Speaker 1: of a short circuit. All right, Now let's get back 513 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:57,280 Speaker 1: to the shunt. So this insulating wire that's around this 514 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:01,720 Speaker 1: this shunt typically wraps around the base of the filament 515 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,600 Speaker 1: in a Christmas light bulb, and because it has a 516 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,520 Speaker 1: higher electrical resistance than the filament does, electricity is not 517 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:10,440 Speaker 1: going to go through the shunt normally, it will go 518 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:15,280 Speaker 1: through the filament instead. Now, if the filament begins to 519 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,920 Speaker 1: burn out, it starts to get really hot, and that 520 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,240 Speaker 1: heat is enough to melt the insulating material off of 521 00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:26,400 Speaker 1: the shunt. So the bulb burns out, the shunt wire 522 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:30,640 Speaker 1: essentially sheds its insulation. It's melted off. As a result, 523 00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 1: the shunt becomes a lower resistance pathway for electricity, and 524 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,440 Speaker 1: electricity can then pass through the light bulb socket and 525 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:41,000 Speaker 1: keep the other lights on the series lit. It means 526 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,320 Speaker 1: you can actually spot the burnout bulb in a string 527 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:46,560 Speaker 1: and replace it. You don't have to worry about one 528 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,440 Speaker 1: bulb going out and everything going out. You'll just see 529 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: that one bulb burnout and you can then swap it out. Now, 530 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 1: one other thing that can happen that can be frustrating 531 00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: is that some of the strings and lights are pretty 532 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: cheaply made, and the bulb can be loose in their sockets, 533 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: and if they're not making good contact with the parts 534 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,280 Speaker 1: of the socket where the electricity flows through, then you're 535 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: not gonna get electricity flowing through the series because it'll 536 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,720 Speaker 1: be like an open circuit or a circuit where the 537 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,520 Speaker 1: switches in the off position. So in that case, you 538 00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: have to go down the length of the wire and 539 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,320 Speaker 1: check to make sure that each bulb is plugged in 540 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: properly for electricity to flow through that series of bulbs. 541 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,080 Speaker 1: Some Christmas lights actually put the shunt into the socket 542 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,600 Speaker 1: itself rather than inside the bulb, which helps side stuff 543 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:33,880 Speaker 1: that problem. So in those cases, just like with a 544 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: burnt out bulb, the affected bulb would be the one 545 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:39,000 Speaker 1: that was not lit, but the rest of it should 546 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:43,160 Speaker 1: still be shining brightly. Now, when we come back, I'll 547 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,400 Speaker 1: talk a bit more about how the series Circuits and 548 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,040 Speaker 1: Christmas Lights created a headache for the electricians on the 549 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,760 Speaker 1: Netflix series Stranger Things, as well as a couple of 550 00:31:50,800 --> 00:32:02,240 Speaker 1: other interesting facts. But first let's take a quick break. Okay, So, 551 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,720 Speaker 1: in case you've not seen the series Stranger Things, let 552 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,680 Speaker 1: me explain why Christmas lights are important and why they 553 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:12,400 Speaker 1: posed a big challenge to the crew of that show. 554 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,720 Speaker 1: So in the show, there's a boy named Will Buyers 555 00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: who is trapped in a sort of parallel dimension and 556 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:23,120 Speaker 1: he can't interact directly with people in our dimension, but 557 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: he discovers that he can affect electrical devices. The show 558 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,800 Speaker 1: is set in the nineteen eighties and Will comes from 559 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:32,880 Speaker 1: sort of a lower middle class family and they still 560 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,600 Speaker 1: have the big, bulky Christmas lights they haven't switched over 561 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:39,680 Speaker 1: to the smaller ones, and when Will's mother, Joyce figures 562 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,440 Speaker 1: out that Will can affect these lights, she devises away 563 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,840 Speaker 1: for him to communicate with her. She labels a string 564 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,520 Speaker 1: of Christmas lights with letters of the alphabet, and that 565 00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:52,760 Speaker 1: means Will can effectively type out messages by making individual 566 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,760 Speaker 1: lights go off and on, which is a clever idea 567 00:32:55,800 --> 00:33:00,680 Speaker 1: for a show. It's also not how Christmas lights work because, 568 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,240 Speaker 1: as I've described in this podcast, they're supposed to all 569 00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:06,440 Speaker 1: be in series and you can't turn them off and 570 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:10,560 Speaker 1: on individually because they're all in a series circuit. They're 571 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 1: strung in such a way that turning off one means 572 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,360 Speaker 1: they all go off. So how did the show get 573 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:20,520 Speaker 1: around that? Well, it was surprisingly challenging. The solution was 574 00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:25,040 Speaker 1: sort of straightforward, but it wasn't easy or convenient. The 575 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,920 Speaker 1: electrician had to wire each bulb individually to a switchboard 576 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:32,400 Speaker 1: that could supply electricity to that bulb. Now, that also 577 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 1: meant having to control the voltage that was going to 578 00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: each bulb since they were no longer in series and 579 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,320 Speaker 1: the load wouldn't be shared across the whole wire, So 580 00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:43,480 Speaker 1: you had to control the voltage to be appropriate for 581 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:47,440 Speaker 1: the individual bulbs and then isolate it from all the 582 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:50,440 Speaker 1: other bulbs, and you had to do it twenty six times, 583 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: or at least however many times was needed to make 584 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,360 Speaker 1: sure all the letters that were being used were wired 585 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:58,760 Speaker 1: up properly. You might have been able to get away 586 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:01,880 Speaker 1: without wiring up a X or Z or some of 587 00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:05,280 Speaker 1: the other letters that aren't a common The switchboard was 588 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,520 Speaker 1: effectively a keyboard, so you could like press the a 589 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:11,440 Speaker 1: button that would activate a switch, and the switch would 590 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:15,720 Speaker 1: open the circuit, meaning it breaks the pathway, and because 591 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:18,560 Speaker 1: it breaks the pathway, the light would go out. And 592 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,160 Speaker 1: if you close the circuit, if you close the switch, 593 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:23,399 Speaker 1: that would restore the pathway the light bulb would come 594 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:27,799 Speaker 1: on again. So that wiring was probably a huge pain 595 00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:30,000 Speaker 1: in the neck because it meant having to do this 596 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,240 Speaker 1: for multiple letters and making sure each set of wires 597 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,200 Speaker 1: had the appropriate label on the switchboard, not to mention 598 00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 1: being sure that no bulb was going to get too 599 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:41,160 Speaker 1: much voltage for it to handle. And on top of that, 600 00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:45,520 Speaker 1: the wiring had to be hidden so the camera would 601 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:47,479 Speaker 1: make it look like it was just a normal string 602 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,400 Speaker 1: of Christmas lights. You couldn't see all these individual wires 603 00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:55,359 Speaker 1: going to each bulb. It would break the illusion. So 604 00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,240 Speaker 1: while you wouldn't call this a high tech special effect. 605 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,840 Speaker 1: It was one that required a lot of work and 606 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:03,320 Speaker 1: trial by error to get it just right to produce 607 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,359 Speaker 1: the effect that the series directors were looking for. Now 608 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,640 Speaker 1: we're not quite done with the evolution of Christmas lights. 609 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,239 Speaker 1: We've got a few more things to chat about. As 610 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:16,880 Speaker 1: the novelty song The Twelve Pains of Christmas reveals, Christmas 611 00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:20,880 Speaker 1: lights present their own frustrating challenges. If they're not stored properly, 612 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:23,839 Speaker 1: they become a tangled mess. There's the problem of one 613 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,239 Speaker 1: going out and then they all go out. If you 614 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:29,799 Speaker 1: have a shuntless kind of string of Christmas lights at 615 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,080 Speaker 1: any rate, Then there's the line that used to make 616 00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:34,239 Speaker 1: me crack up as a kid. This will tell you 617 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,319 Speaker 1: how sophisticated my sense of humor was, And who am 618 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,160 Speaker 1: I kidding? Still is? The line is, now, why the 619 00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:45,839 Speaker 1: hell are they all blinking? Yeah, blinking lights? Okay, there 620 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,920 Speaker 1: are two general ways of creating blinking Christmas lights if 621 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,880 Speaker 1: you're a manufacturer. One of those ways is brilliantly simple 622 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: and kind of jankie. So let's go with that one first, 623 00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,000 Speaker 1: all right. So let's say get a couple of different 624 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,960 Speaker 1: metals and you create a strip using these two different metals. 625 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,680 Speaker 1: Maybe one side is copper and the other side is 626 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,480 Speaker 1: you know, iron or something. These two metals have slightly 627 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,040 Speaker 1: different properties, and one of the different properties they have 628 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,000 Speaker 1: is their rate of expansion when they get hot. Because 629 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,760 Speaker 1: one metal will expand faster than the other, it causes 630 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: the strip to bend. It curls as one side of 631 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: the strip expands faster than the other one does. These 632 00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:30,600 Speaker 1: are called bimetallic strips, and they're using lots of stuff 633 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:35,399 Speaker 1: like thermostats, but thermostats are a different podcast. Alright, So 634 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,480 Speaker 1: you've got this bimetallic strip and you use it to 635 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:41,440 Speaker 1: make a circuit path to a filament on a light bulb. 636 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:44,880 Speaker 1: So the strip itself is acting like a kind of wire. 637 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,440 Speaker 1: Electricity is passing through the strip to the filament. But 638 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:50,759 Speaker 1: then the filament starts to heat up, and when it 639 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:53,320 Speaker 1: heats up, it causes the strip to start to bend 640 00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:55,800 Speaker 1: because of that expansion thing I was just talking about. 641 00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,800 Speaker 1: The strip bends to a point where it no longer 642 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,520 Speaker 1: makes contact of the filament, and since the electricity was 643 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: flowing through the strip, it means the electrical path is broken, 644 00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,719 Speaker 1: right because there's no more contact between the strip and 645 00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:11,879 Speaker 1: the filament. No more electricity goes to the filament, and 646 00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:15,560 Speaker 1: so the light blinks out further. This bulb, called a 647 00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:19,200 Speaker 1: blinker bulb, doesn't have a shunt in it, so when 648 00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,800 Speaker 1: it goes out, all the other lights in that series 649 00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:24,760 Speaker 1: blink out at the same time. Then the bimetallic strip 650 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,120 Speaker 1: begins to cool down because the filament is no longer glowing, 651 00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,600 Speaker 1: so it's no longer putting off heat. And as it 652 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,120 Speaker 1: begins to cool down, it straightens out again. And when 653 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,160 Speaker 1: it straightens out, it makes contact with the filament, which 654 00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:39,479 Speaker 1: causes the circuit to re establish and the lights come 655 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,719 Speaker 1: on again. This process repeats itself over and over until 656 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,120 Speaker 1: the blinker bulb finally burns out and you have to 657 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:48,000 Speaker 1: replace the darn thing. Now, I love this approach because 658 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:51,280 Speaker 1: it's a low tech, practical way to create blinking lights, 659 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,200 Speaker 1: and it even includes a little mechanical element in the 660 00:37:54,239 --> 00:38:00,000 Speaker 1: form of those bending strips. I think it's pun intended brilliant. Now, 661 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,520 Speaker 1: the other way to make blinking lights is also brilliant, 662 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:06,759 Speaker 1: but it's a bit more sophisticated. There are strings of 663 00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:11,160 Speaker 1: lights that come with sixteen function controllers. These controllers have 664 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:15,000 Speaker 1: four transistors each of which drives a separate strand of lights. 665 00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:18,520 Speaker 1: So the full string of lights is made up of 666 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:23,360 Speaker 1: four strands of lights. Further, these lights on these these 667 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:27,799 Speaker 1: full strands are in an interleaving pattern, meaning that you 668 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:30,480 Speaker 1: don't just get all the lights in one strand followed 669 00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:32,680 Speaker 1: by all the lights in the second strand and so on. 670 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:37,279 Speaker 1: The string would interleave these strands, so you could have 671 00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:41,120 Speaker 1: something like light one from Strand one, light one from 672 00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,919 Speaker 1: strand to, light one from strand three, light one from 673 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:48,399 Speaker 1: strand four, light two from strand one, and so on, 674 00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,200 Speaker 1: And that way you can apply different effects to each 675 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,520 Speaker 1: strand in the full string, and you could get really 676 00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:57,359 Speaker 1: interesting results. Otherwise you might end up with a tree 677 00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,239 Speaker 1: in which the first fifty lights are blinking, than next 678 00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:02,760 Speaker 1: fifty lights are fading in and out, the next fifty 679 00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,920 Speaker 1: are twinkling, etcetera. So by doing it this way, you 680 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,120 Speaker 1: can have that effects spread out throughout the entire string 681 00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:12,760 Speaker 1: of lights, and you get a more interesting varied effect. 682 00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:16,480 Speaker 1: More recently, we've seen led lights start to replace the 683 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:20,600 Speaker 1: old incandescent many lights. The incandescent bulbs work by feeding 684 00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:23,239 Speaker 1: electricity through a filament which heats up and gives off light. 685 00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,480 Speaker 1: But LED lights generate light in a totally different way. 686 00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:29,760 Speaker 1: L E D s have electrons moving through a semiconductor material. 687 00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:33,080 Speaker 1: Now I've talked about this in past episodes, and frankly, 688 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:35,080 Speaker 1: I'm running out of time in this episode, so I 689 00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:37,080 Speaker 1: don't feel like I can really go into a lot 690 00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:39,920 Speaker 1: of detail here about how it works. But from a 691 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:42,920 Speaker 1: sub atomic level, here's what's going on. You've got an 692 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:46,480 Speaker 1: electron inhabiting a certain energy shell around the nucleus of 693 00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,400 Speaker 1: an atom. You pour some energy into that atom that 694 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,439 Speaker 1: causes the electron to jump to a higher energy shell 695 00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:55,560 Speaker 1: a little further out from the atoms nucleus. But then 696 00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:57,960 Speaker 1: you cut off the energy that's going into the atom, 697 00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:00,600 Speaker 1: and the electrons natural state is to be closer to 698 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:02,919 Speaker 1: the nucleus, but in order to move back to where 699 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,200 Speaker 1: it's supposed to be at first has to give off 700 00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:08,719 Speaker 1: that excess energy, which it does so by emitting the 701 00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:11,759 Speaker 1: energy in the form of photons or light, and they 702 00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:15,640 Speaker 1: do it in very specific frequencies, so with different semiconductors 703 00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,680 Speaker 1: you can produce different colors of light. One nice thing 704 00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:20,920 Speaker 1: about L E D s is that when an LED 705 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:25,040 Speaker 1: light fails, which typically takes a long time, LED lights 706 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:28,840 Speaker 1: tend to last much longer than incandescent lights. Anyway, the 707 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:31,280 Speaker 1: failed l e ED can still serve as a pathway 708 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,440 Speaker 1: for electricity to flow through, so the other lights on 709 00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,600 Speaker 1: the string will continue to stay lit. It's more or 710 00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:39,920 Speaker 1: less that like the l e ED is is in 711 00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:44,000 Speaker 1: itself acting like a shunt. LED lights, just like other 712 00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:46,840 Speaker 1: Christmas lights, tend to be wired in series, and you 713 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,480 Speaker 1: have multiple series of lights wired in parallel on a 714 00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,880 Speaker 1: single string. And another great thing about LED lights is 715 00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,680 Speaker 1: that they typically require way less energy to run, so 716 00:40:56,800 --> 00:40:59,239 Speaker 1: you can run them longer and for less money in 717 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:02,360 Speaker 1: the long run than you can with classic incandescent bulbs. 718 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,919 Speaker 1: They tend to be more expensive than incandescent bulb lights 719 00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:08,840 Speaker 1: are on initial purchase, but in the long run you 720 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:11,440 Speaker 1: actually save money by using those and you save a 721 00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:14,640 Speaker 1: lot of energy. So highly recommended h and one type 722 00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:17,319 Speaker 1: of bulb I didn't mention, I skipped over it, but 723 00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:19,719 Speaker 1: this was a favorite of mine when I was growing 724 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:23,040 Speaker 1: up are bubble lights, which made a comeback not too 725 00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:25,239 Speaker 1: long ago, but these were like common when I was 726 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,520 Speaker 1: a kid. These lights have a fluid with a relatively 727 00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:32,360 Speaker 1: low boiling point, and it's inside of a glass tube 728 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:35,080 Speaker 1: and at the base of the tube is an incandescent bulb, 729 00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:37,560 Speaker 1: so when the bulb lights up, it gives off heat. 730 00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,839 Speaker 1: Then eventually that heat reaches the temperature sufficient to bring 731 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,080 Speaker 1: the liquid inside the tube to a boil, which produces 732 00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,160 Speaker 1: bubbles inside the tube. Now, we had these on our 733 00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:50,240 Speaker 1: Christmas trees when I was a kid, and I thought 734 00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:54,120 Speaker 1: they were super awesome. The early versions of these lights 735 00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:57,480 Speaker 1: used a very lightweight oil as the liquid, but more 736 00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:01,359 Speaker 1: modern versions tend to rely upon I chlora methane, which 737 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,560 Speaker 1: has a boiling point of thirty nine point six degrees 738 00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:08,719 Speaker 1: celsius or a hundred three point three degrees fahrenheit. Oh 739 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,239 Speaker 1: and on the other end of the spectrum are the 740 00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,160 Speaker 1: projector systems being used to create all sorts of effects 741 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:19,200 Speaker 1: on house exteriors, like snowfall or I don't know, an 742 00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:23,080 Speaker 1: ELF strike team descending on a house. These projectors typically 743 00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:26,400 Speaker 1: use LEDs to generate lasers to create the light needed 744 00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:30,120 Speaker 1: for the projection. The light passes through lenses that magnify 745 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:34,319 Speaker 1: whatever images are being displayed and then shoots them up 746 00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:36,360 Speaker 1: so that they appear on the side of a house. 747 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:40,080 Speaker 1: And lasers are pretty nifty. They're also super technical and 748 00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:42,200 Speaker 1: I've talked about them another episodes, so I won't go 749 00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:45,280 Speaker 1: into detail here, but I wanted to mention them because 750 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:48,360 Speaker 1: it's another high tech gadget being used in holiday decorations 751 00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:51,160 Speaker 1: these days. Also, um, if you have one of these things, 752 00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:54,080 Speaker 1: make sure that it's pointed well at your house and 753 00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:56,759 Speaker 1: not the sky, because lasers have been known to cause 754 00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:59,840 Speaker 1: problems for pilots because that light can be seriously powerful, 755 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,640 Speaker 1: so you know, just be responsible. There are other lights 756 00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:06,920 Speaker 1: I can mention. They're like micro lights and mesh lights 757 00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:10,160 Speaker 1: and icicle lights. But essentially all of these are variations 758 00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:13,080 Speaker 1: upon the stuff I've already talked about in this episode. 759 00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:16,480 Speaker 1: And then there are the Christmas light displays that synchronize 760 00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:21,080 Speaker 1: the lights with the soundtrack using various micro controllers and sequencers. 761 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:23,040 Speaker 1: And maybe I'll do a full episode about that kind 762 00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:26,200 Speaker 1: of stuff in the future, but for now, I say 763 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:29,640 Speaker 1: it's time for lights out. So that wraps up this 764 00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:33,000 Speaker 1: episode of tech Stuff. If you guys have any suggestions 765 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:35,440 Speaker 1: for future episodes, reach out to me. You can send 766 00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:38,279 Speaker 1: me an email the addresses text stuff at how stuff 767 00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:41,120 Speaker 1: works dot com, or draw me a line on Facebook 768 00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:43,400 Speaker 1: or Twitter. The handle for both of those is text 769 00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,920 Speaker 1: Stuff h s W. You can also visit our website 770 00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:49,799 Speaker 1: that's tech stuff podcast dot com, where you'll find an 771 00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:54,320 Speaker 1: archive of how many episodes? Sorry? Oh all of them? Yeah, 772 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,799 Speaker 1: all of the episodes is what Taria is saying. So 773 00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:00,279 Speaker 1: you can find all the episodes at tech stuff podcast Com. 774 00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:02,919 Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to our online store where 775 00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,640 Speaker 1: you can buy merchandise. And if you do, it's like 776 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,640 Speaker 1: you're giving me a little Christmas present, because every purchase 777 00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:10,560 Speaker 1: you make goes to help the show, and we greatly 778 00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:14,680 Speaker 1: appreciate it, and I'll talk to you again really soon. 779 00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:21,080 Speaker 1: Hext Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How 780 00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,560 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit 781 00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:27,680 Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 782 00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:29,080 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.