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There's this anecdote, somehow connected to this topic. Some decades ago, a manufacturer from East Germany, former GDR, was participating at a fair for lights

There's this anecdote, somehow connected to this topic. Some decades ago, a manufacturer from East Germany, former GDR, was participating at a fair for lights and light bulbs. This manufacturer invented a light bulb that never burns its glow wire. At some point during the fair the companies from West Germany had a big laugh on that manufacturer, mocking him and his invention. Their argument: If you build a bulb like this, how are you going to make money? Now, I cannot say why we don't have glasses like this already but my assumption is that the monetary incentive is seen as being contradictory to such an invention.

occamschainsaw 2y ago
This actually happened much earlier in the first half of the 20th century. It was an international cartel with household names (GE, Osram, Phillips etc). "The cartel tested their bulbs and fined manufacturers for bulbs that lasted more than 1,000 hours." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy
lesuorac 2y ago
I mean if you don't already have a large light bulb business this sounds like a great idea. Make a million light bulbs and sell all of them and then do whatever it is that you want. Similar to finding a cure for cancer. There's a huge market that you can just eliminate and then retire.
cleansy 2y ago
That and producing these glasses with said technique is a lot more expensive. You need to heat up the glass and the potassium nitrate to 500C, mostly over hours because otherwise the glass breaks. Then you need to keep it for a couple of hours, then cool down slowly. What made the initial east german production work is, they did it on a large industrial scale, but even then the energy that you need makes the glasses quite expensive to produce. It's hard to justify buying 6-7€ for a regular drinking cup when a comparable form factor is 1€ or something in this region.
HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
Maybe depends on price and market. In the US, consumers like stuff that is cheap, and don't seem to care much if it is poor quality and breaks - they'll just buy another. In the UK, at least when I lived there 30 years ago, people seemed content to pay more for quality items that would last longer. I noticed when I moved to the US and saw same brand, e.g. Black & Decker selling cheap plastic US-only versions of products compared to their heavy duty cast iron counterparts sold in the UK that would last forever.
deleted 2y ago
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torginus 2y ago
Actually Technology Connections made a great youtube video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY The gist is that by running bulbs at a lower power, you can greatly prolong its life, but the downside is that it doesn't heat up as much, and since emissions spectrum correllates with temperature, ends up being much worse at converting electricity to light, which ends up being not worth it.

occamschainsaw 2y ago

This actually happened much earlier in the first half of the 20th century. It was an international cartel with household names (GE, Osram, Phillips etc). "The cartel tested their bulbs and fined manufacturers for bulbs that lasted more than 1,000 hours." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy

lesuorac 2y ago

I mean if you don't already have a large light bulb business this sounds like a great idea. Make a million light bulbs and sell all of them and then do whatever it is that you want. Similar to finding a cure for cancer. There's a huge market that you can just eliminate and then retire.

cleansy 2y ago

That and producing these glasses with said technique is a lot more expensive. You need to heat up the glass and the potassium nitrate to 500C, mostly over hours because otherwise the glass breaks. Then you need to keep it for a couple of hours, then cool down slowly. What made the initial east german production work is, they did it on a large industrial scale, but even then the energy that you need makes the glasses quite expensive to produce. It's hard to justify buying 6-7€ for a regular drinking cup when a comparable form factor is 1€ or something in this region.

HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago

Maybe depends on price and market. In the US, consumers like stuff that is cheap, and don't seem to care much if it is poor quality and breaks - they'll just buy another. In the UK, at least when I lived there 30 years ago, people seemed content to pay more for quality items that would last longer. I noticed when I moved to the US and saw same brand, e.g. Black & Decker selling cheap plastic US-only versions of products compared to their heavy duty cast iron counterparts sold in the UK that would last forever.

deleted 2y ago

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torginus 2y ago

Actually Technology Connections made a great youtube video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY The gist is that by running bulbs at a lower power, you can greatly prolong its life, but the downside is that it doesn't heat up as much, and since emissions spectrum correllates with temperature, ends up being much worse at converting electricity to light, which ends up being not worth it.