Well I learned the song in grade school so I was thinking of a drunken sailor’s belly.
I’ve seen pictures of small kitchen appliances like toasters from the late 19th century. I’ll come back and post a link if I can find one.
One thing that surprised me was a sort of covered saucepan that had its power cord running through the handle! If that wasn’t awkward to use, I don’t know what was.
I’ve read that American POWs in Europe use pencils and razors to listen to radio broadcasts.
What, nobody mentioned the tool that made a lot of the electrical devices talked about… the soldering Iron.
Today’s dual coil tattoo machines are not substantially changed from the electric tattoo machine patented by Samuel O’Reilly in 1891.
Post 16.
Yes, they did. So have I. So did the Japanese guests (AKA prisoners of war). Would you like to see how? I’ve tried that. It works. But only for AM broadcasts. But it works well up into the shortwave band.
the plans you will find for crystal radios, that kids would have done, will be for the AM middle wave broadcast bands. it will pick up strong local stations with a moderate antenna.
crystal radio enthusiasts have made radios for shortwave. they will be of some different design and values. because the radio gets all its power to make sound from the radio signal you need a large good outside antenna.
Yes, I would like to know how. I would love to make one myself. None of this beats a Baghdad battery in longevity however for a literal interpretation of the question (2000+ years).
Toasters.
ETA: according to this Wikipedia page 1893 saw the first electric toaster. 1925 saw the first pop up one.
Irons?
The vibrator: 1883; first home version: 1899
[A Scientific American article caused a resurgence in vibrator histories; I cited this one because it is on-line and good.]
Anyone still make Leyden jars?
Actually, I posted what you replied to before looking at the link in this post, by gazpacho. It has directions just as good as any I was going to google up for you.
Here’s the link again:
Given a strict interpretation of the OP, the best answer I have seen is the Baghdad Battery.
Assuming that is actually being ‘manufactured’ rather than built by hobbyist. Again, this is a very strict interpretation. This is a terrific thread. Had not thought of crystal radios in years. I made one, just like many of y’all. But the thing about lead pencils and razor blades? Wow!
Tell me more Cheshire Human, please. (If it isn’t too much of a hijack.)
ETA: Didn’t read your link. Sorry about that Chief.
The Baghdad battery is a pretty dubious answer to the OP for two reasons.
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Despite being called a battery there is not a lot of evidence that they were used as batteries. In fact I think that there is no evidence they were used as batteries. I don’t think there is much evidence on how they were used at all. They just look like early batteries and you can make batteries that look similar to Bagdad batteries.
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They are not manufactured anymore. They are only built now so people can test theories about what they could be.
And related, the Centennial Light is the world’s longest burning bulb at 110 years old. That is amazing.
Can’t resist adding an anecdote about this, even though it’s a bit off-topic in this thread:
I worked in IT in the 1980’s. One of the computer technicians told of an experiment he had done, just for grins: Connected up several PC-size computers into a local network via chains of paper clips.
Yeah, It’s actually amazing what you can make work.
One reason why it has lasted so long is that it runs at a relatively low temperature (see the first picture in your link of a similar bulb); incandescent lamp life is related to the 13th power of voltage (for vacuum-filled bulbs, (rated voltage / new voltage) ^ 13.5); thus, a standard 1,000 hour bulb operated at half its rated voltage will last about 11.6 million hours or 1,300 years (slightly less if gas-filled, with an exponent of 13.1, but gas increases the life at normal voltage; this formula also probably stops working at some point since the temperature will become too low for any evaporation so life becomes effectively infinite). Even a 10% decrease in voltage will quadruple the life, thus those 130 volt super-long-life bulbs you may have seen (I have a box that claims 5,000 hours, compared to perhaps 750 for normal 100 watt bulbs, these are also constructed more durably).
It’s gazpacho’s link, actually. I just repeated it. Give credit where the credit is due. But, yes, I tried the razor blade years ago. It can be made to work, without too much trouble.
These days, I haven’t been doing a ‘crystal’ radio, as strictly defined, since I frequently put in a powered RF amplifier stage before the detector, or an audio amp after it, or use a battery and variable resistor to pre-bias the detector, or a lot of other non-standard experiments like that. [eta: I do wind the coils, myself.] I like to breadboard up circuits just to see what works. But usually, the detector part of the circuit is something other than a standard germanium diode. I even found out that my usual 1-transistor audio amp circuit is a detector, because the thing I whipped up still worked just fine, even when I put a jumper wire in place of the iron sulfide crystal I was using at the time.
Now that I think about it, I’m going to have to try a rusty nail, since I don’t have a rusty razor-blade handy, next time I play with that stuff.