Product: Torch
Steampunk Lime Light head lamp   (+4)  [vote for, against]
Retro, but very bright.

LED headband lamps are commonplace.

This is slightly different.

A padded leather strap, sized to fit comfortably around the brow of the wearer, supports a small but powerful polished steel-and-brass clockwork motor which drives a small generator. The rectified DC from the generator is fed to a small glass vial containing water and electrolyte. Hydrogen and oxygen liberated by electrolysis pass through thin rubber pipes to the burner, where the jets impinge on a block of lime mounted on a bracket in front of a polished concave steel reflector, in the manner of a classical limelight.

An ideal accessory for the explorer or adventurer wishing to explore vampire-haunted castles, mysterious caves, or ruined temples deep in the jungle without the tedious problem of dragging a cart load of Leclanche cells behind them.
-- 8th of 7, Apr 04 2010

Limelight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limelight
Surprisingly effective [8th of 7, Apr 04 2010]

Leclanché Cell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leclanche
Crude but effective [8th of 7, Apr 04 2010]

Robert Falcon Scott http://en.wikipedia...Robert_Falcon_Scott
It seemed like a good idea at the time. [8th of 7, Apr 04 2010]

Arc lamp http://en.wikipedia...amp#Carbon_arc_lamp
// 200 times more powerful than contemporary filament lamps. // [BunsenHoneydew, Apr 07 2010]

How fun. How much would this device weigh, I wonder?
-- BakedRiemannZeta, Apr 04 2010


I suppose if you're in the habit of exploring vampire-haunted castles, mysterious caves, or ruined temples deep in the jungle, then strapping a 1500 degree flame to your forehead is all in a day's work, really.
-- mouseposture, Apr 04 2010


Quite; in fact, you might be considered to lack machismo if you used anything less ...

Great British Heroes like Professor Challenger, Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook, Commissioner Nayland Smith and their compatriots would think nothing of strapping an unreliable and potentially explosive device to their foreheads; it's only wimps like Indiana Jones who go for the so-called "safe" option.
-- 8th of 7, Apr 04 2010


//Great British Heroes like Professor Challenger, Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook, Commissioner Nayland Smith.// "Machismo" is for bounders like Indiana Jones. What those gents had was "British pluck."
-- mouseposture, Apr 04 2010


... for which there is no effective substitute. Even if it does get you killed in a remarkably foolish and readily predictable way.

Sorry, did someone mention Captain Robert Falcon Scott ?

<link>
-- 8th of 7, Apr 04 2010


sounds heavy! If I were exploring I would prefer to avoid a few of those energy conversions, just carry a tank of hydrogen or one of those oxyacetyline setups with hoses going up to the lighting apparatus.
-- AutoMcDonough, Apr 05 2010


I agree it is delightfully steampunk, and much as I forbear to intrude upon such splendour with mere physics, I fear I must.

Surely such energy as is emitted as light must come, via sundry and wasteful transformations, from the clock spring? In particular, the electrolysis of hydrogen from water is, if I recall, deucedly inefficient.

Would it not be perhaps more efficacious to construct your dynamo in such a manner as to provide sufficiently high tension (although, perforce, lesser current) to leap betwixt two carbon rods, thus producing the brilliant white light of an arc lamp?

Should a larger armature be required for the dynamo, perhaps it can consume the entire circumference of a hat, encircling the wearer's head.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Apr 07 2010


[+] steampunk bicycle
-- FlyingToaster, Apr 07 2010


Not bad, [BH]. The arc lamp could also be useful as an impromptu welding set, or for cutting through metal to escape from dungeons, etc.
-- 8th of 7, Apr 07 2010


My pleasure, sirrah.

Lieutenant Robert Falcon Scott
While sailing south, got Falcon stuck
In Falcon ice
And Falcon snow
By Jove! What rotten Falcon luck!
-- BunsenHoneydew, Apr 07 2010



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