flashlight bulb lights up by 2 burning candles

[shankle]

Could someone explain how this works to me?

On a table are 2 candles, two wires with alligator clips at each end, small magnet, two nails and a flashlight bulb with wires.
Put a nail halfway through each candle. Rub the magnet on each nail to magnetize it.
Put an alligator clip on each nail.
Connect the other ends of the wires to the flashlight bulb.
Light the two candles and the flashlight bulb will come on.

I suppose this works like cold fusion.....


       

[bushpilot]

Could you attach a photo of this?  I doubt it works the way I understand you describing it.

Greg

[dedndave]

i am with Greg
as you described it, the only light you will see is coming from the flame of the candles - lol
also, it might be easier to rub the magnet on the nails before you stick them into the candles

there are basically two ways to get that bulb lit
1) magnetics - requires a magnetic field, a coil, and some motion
2) chemical reaction - you can make a rudimentary battery with zinc and an orange, if i remember

i don't see either of those methods at play, here
i think someone is pulling your leg

[shankle]

I received it in the form of an email attachment.
The attachment is called "Candles.wmv" and is in the form of a video and quite long.
Have no idea how to send this to you. I don't think Hutch allows something this long to be
uploaded.
Will keep looking.
Thanks

[dedndave]

i found three different versions of the video - lol
one of them, they hook it to a voltmeter and show 122 vac - lol
no friggin way ! - on that one, they do not show you what is under the candles

on the other two, the leads just happen to go off camera and back on - looks very convincing - lol
it is a total hoax - all three

if it was real, i'd use it to run my microwave
a whole new meaning to "dinner by candle-light"
very romantic

[shankle]

It's got to be a hoax. But why would someone go to the trouble to make a video of it.
I sure have got better things to do than make videos of hoaxes.
One way to find out for sure would be to duplicate the experiment.
Really I don't see how rubbing a small circular magnetic on a nail would magnetize that fast.
Of course all kinds of tricks can be done in a video.

[shankle]

I watched the video again and observed that the bottom of the candles was never shown. They were turned around to show that the nails did not go all the way through but Never the bottom. And the candles for both experiments were placed on the same spot on the table
and the underside of the table was never shown.
So all kinds of possibilities for trickery are presented.

[MichaelW]

Perhaps the purpose of the video is to distribute some sort of exploit.

[dedndave]

good thinking Michael - lol
prolly more likely they sell candles - lol - or, nails, perhaps - or both

[dedndave]

when i was a kid, i had a crystal set, of course
all the other kids had 1N34 diodes - i was hot - i had a 1N60 - 1N60A, - even better ! - lol
we used to unwind small audio transformers to get the wire to make the coils
i wanted a super-long antenna
so, i took another audio transformer and unwound it
i used several rubber bands looped together at the ends for insulators (and to provide some relief for the wire)
i had that antenna stretching across our yard, the neighbours' yard, and his neighbours' yard
then, i took a right turn and went across one more yard with it - lol
the antenna was completely invisible from the ground
it worked great, but birds kept hitting it and breaking the wire - lol
i gave it up after about the third time i fixed it
the wire is something like 34 ga or smaller, maybe
i could probably make a great "candle" video clip
carefully choose the right colour tablecloth, and you would never see the wires
i could show you the bottom of the candles, as well as never leaving the frame with the meter leads
you'd swear it was no hoax - lol
well, at least, a long as there weren't any birds nearby