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thearclampman.bsky.social
Collector and researcher of lighting technology from medieval to recent. History of the electrical industry especially during the carbon lamp era and our contemporary changes in decarbonisation
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Posts 22 Comments 28

Three bridges, two with trains in mid crossing. ..Err time for a recount... Correction four bridges. I must go and visit the North East of the UK one day

submitted 8 hours ago • 1 comment

Stuff? I think that this is open to debate by physicists. At this scale we think of energy waves travelling in straight lines. The USS Enterprise uses photon torpedoes which presumably are full of photons or particles. Carbon arc lamps produce actinic rays that we never hear about nowadays.

submitted 8 hours ago • 1 comment

Over the weekend I was reading about Impressment in the British Navy and now I read this account of the French army. Every country has required additional men to fight it's wars once the first wave of volunteers has passed. Ukraine being our current example

submitted 10 hours ago • 0 comments

Most people are familiar with the 1966 Aberfan disaster where a slag heap slipped down the hill and into a primary school killing 116 children. Less well known is the flood disaster at this primary school in 1910. Here is a view looking up the hill to the school which was flooded from above

submitted 19 hours ago • 1 comment

@thearclampman.bsky.social is very very VERY happy after discovering this conversation on early cinemas and carbon arc lamps. Memories from those who used them and the levels of details never seen in manuals and history books.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" ...Unless they are delivered by a shell

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

These big trucks are expensive and becoming electric. I think a single tyre is worth about the same as the average house price in the UK

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I have yet to see an electric HGV so I will look out for one of these on the road. But how can I identify one? It looks to have a smaller radiator grille. Large rectangular battery boxes instead of lorry sized diesel tanks. Distribution has predictable range and regular repeated routes. Ideal

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

@ofgem.bsky.social Why do you block quotes of your latest post on bluesky? On twitter you allow quotes ( but only one person has actually quoted your most recent post at the time of writing this question)

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

@ofgem.bsky.social announces new gas and electric tariffs. All the main news channels report the average increase in customer bills but the unit rate is the important figure and can be seen via the link on their latest post that users cannot quote

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Yesterday I sold another 300kg of books into the trade. I need to downsize I expect most will be pulped. Rare but dated and I was upset throwing them in the bulk bins. Some published by the million but so many are gone. I am not alone as this collection of 30 year old comics needs a new home

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Our skylines have changed. In the mid Victorian era most power was from steam engines which needed coal fires and chimneys to create sufficient draft. Quickly demolished once gas engines became common as tall chimneys are expensive to maintain. Apart from the domestic ones on dwellings

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Electric bikes, electric cars, electric busses, electric lorries and electric light aircraft are now displacing fossil fuelled versions. But large commercial aircraft need too much energy for batteries to be viable. This looks like a breakthrough that creates fuel from solar power.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Interesting developments in the fire safety of EV batteries. As a new technology we consider the fire risk but accept that of driving ten gallons of petrol around at seventy miles per hour.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Thank you to Nina for my morning rabbit hole in this ancient light. Many early lighthouses used braziers of coal or wood and to get sufficient suppliers to the lighthouse site was expensive.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Looking forward to the weekend away waking up to a misty morning in the Rhonda. This part of South Wales was an important coal mining area and many villages were built for the mine workers with rows of terraced housing just a few hundred yards from the pit head.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

I bought a car last month and popped it in a garage. Buying the tax, residents parking permit and insurance was just too much at the time. Going to drive it for a weekend away but while assembling paperwork I noticed my insurance stops two days short of a full year. #shrinkflation

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

From the era when metal was expensive it was repurposed for other uses.

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

There is a second hand light bulb shop in #Newbury It takes up the most floorspace in the kennet shopping centre in the town. Actually it is more of a department store of secondhand items from a house clearance operator. Bought this 250 Watt lamp and fitting to brighten and light up my life.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

I collect light bulbs but my pocket is much smaller than the collector who bought this one. At these prices there is the potential for faking them.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Lovely to see neon lighting technology is still made and being shared on bluesky. It would be great to find other types of electric lighting shining brightly on here

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

1/5 I was a little sad this week as I had to downsize and sold 3/4 tonne of my books into the trade. Several sets of encyclopaedias that I will never be able to read. But one book had a broken spine and would have been pulped. I had to take it back home and within I saw the face of God.

submitted 22 days ago • 2 comments