this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
130 points (98.5% liked)
Wikipedia
1543 readers
246 users here now
A place to share interesting articles from Wikipedia.
Rules:
- Only links to Wikipedia permitted
- Please stick to the format "Article Title (other descriptive text/editorialization)"
- Tick the NSFW box for submissions with inappropriate thumbnails
Recommended:
- If possible, when submitting please delete the "m." from "en.m.wikipedia.org". This will ensure people clicking from desktop will get the full Wikipedia website.
- Interested users can find add-ons and scripts which do this automatically.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This makes me sad in a weird way. Same shit happened with light bulbs.
The lightbulbs thing was (possibly) different. There's some physical limits on the performance of lightbulbs so the time to failure test was more of a proxy to make sure bulbs of a certain wattage were outputting similar strength and color light.
https://youtu.be/zb7Bs98KmnY?si=UQzU-Vn2E01Bs4sm
I don't know if there were other reasons this glass tech didn't catch on besides the obvious capitalism issues, but the lightbulb thing is definitely a misunderstood piece of trivia.
Ha I knew someone would bring up Tech Connections. Both vids feature fascinating science history!
Also has led to a vibrant market for old Pyrex, made with borosilicate before they switched to soda-lime. Borosilicate is generally much more resistant to thermal shock (though there are some advantages to soda lime, but the big reason is that it's cheaper)
I discovered the difference the hard way in college when I shattered a pyrex measuring cup by pouring boiling water into it. Four cups of boiling water and glass shards everywhere!
Look for PYREX, not pyrex. They switched over in the 1990s, but sometimes you can get lucky at thrift stores.