Kerosene Lamp Powers Radio (Jun, 1960)
Filed under: Cool, Radio — @ 12:04 am
Source: Science And Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1960
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Science And Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1960
| Buy on Ebay
Kerosene Lamp Powers Radio
REMOTE areas of Siberia and China use thermoelectric generators like the one shown here to convert heat from a kerosene lamp into electricity for radios.
The 20-lb. device is being studied by scientists at the Martin Co., Baltimore, Md., where similar direct conversion principles have been applied to nuclear heat sources. They paid $56 for the Russian-built device.
A series of thermocouples is arranged around the upper portion of the lamp. As each set of elements is heated at one end by the lamp, a small amount of electricity flows through the pair. Metallic fins remove the excess heat.
And by “excess heat” they mean “to produce the temperature gradient required for the thermo-electric effect”.
I wonder if this was ever used with solar ?
Modern photocells would be more efficient. (I HOPE!)
But…. cost per watt advantage?
Comment by jayessell — October 6, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
I believe it is actually pretty inefficient. Though I do wonder if such a device was ever considered as an alternative or supplement to the alternator in a car. I suppose it wouldn’t work well until the car was warmed up and you would still need the alternator until then to avoid having to run on the battery. But I would think that once the car was warm you could use it to provide power which would decrease the load on the alternator and thus the engine. Then again, the alternator is such a minor load it probably wouldn’t be worth it anyways. A 200 HP engine is roughly, I believe, 160 KW. At maximum most alternators can’t produce more than about 1500 watts (130 amp is about the biggest you will normally see and many are significantly less than that) and that’s not even 1% of the engine’s output. Even at lower throttle levels it still shouldn’t be significant.
Comment by avatar28 — October 7, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
Actually TEGs are very efficient. Devices based on these are still powering the Voyager Spacecraft 30 years after launch. It is expected that both spacecraft will continue to have sufficient electrical power to perform experiments until 2020 though each has had some instruments shut down due to lack of available power.
Comment by JMyint — October 7, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
This subject has been much discussed in the Lamp Guild (we’re kerosene lamps fans). You’ll find the main thread here:
http://lampguild.org/QandApage.....000019.htm
Comment by Ergosum — October 8, 2007 @ 7:48 am
I have one of this and is working, i’m from argentina. Somebody know de price of this device?
Thanks!
Comment by German — November 26, 2008 @ 2:21 am