Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 84 posts

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#21

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

etler wrote: post #10

This isn't an alternative to the light bulb. This is an alternative to the window for people living in slums that can't afford glass.

Probably you've never seen a slum, so let me explain:

- Houses are juxtaposed to each other, there's no room for windows

- Roofs are corrugated, so you can't easily fit a top glass panel even if you have the money for one.

- There are transparent, fiber glass roofs, and some people use those, but often they don't get to choose the materials used to build the house, just use what is available.

So this is a quite nice hack that works for most houses.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#22

Post by raldi »

lutusp wrote: post #4
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

"The lamps work best with a black cap..." - why would that be so? Wouldn't a reflective cap work well too?

All I can think of is that a black cap won't degrade as quickly because of ultraviolet exposure. Most plastics (long polymers) have chemical bonds that can be broken by the energy level provided by ultraviolet photons, so over time they turn from polymers into quasicrystals and lose their strength -- disintegrate. But a black plastic, by excluding the ultraviolet light, protects itself and lasts much longer. So a bot…

I thought black objects absorb all wavelengths, and white objects reflect them all away.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#23

Post by Buzaga »

eru wrote: post #12
wyz9 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re not really understanding the kind of housing this is made for. Shacks in slums don’t generally have nice triple glassed windows.

Yes, the alternative would be going outdoors. But in the tropics you don't want to do that during the midday sun.

No, people absolutely take the hot sun all the time when they have to go out, they need it because their homes are dark even in the day and there's stuff you want to do inside the house in the day, like cooking, cleaning, studying...

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#24

Post by eru »

Buzaga wrote: post #23
eru wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the alternative would be going outdoors. But in the tropics you don't want to do that during the midday sun.

No, people absolutely take the hot sun all the time when they have to go out, they need it because their homes are dark even in the day and there's stuff you want to do inside the house in the day, like cooking, cleaning, studying...

Yes, you have to be outside, but you wouldn't want to be, if you can avoid it.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#25

Post by vincie »

I thought of this general idea many years ago, but then decided it might be better to cut up the bottles, flatten the plastic and sew the flat pieces together to make panels to use in roofs and windows. Never got around to actually doing anything about it though.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#26

Post by eru »

raldi wrote: post #22
lutusp wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I can think of is that a black cap won't degrade as quickly because of ultraviolet exposure. Most plastics (long polymers) have chemical bonds that can be broken by the energy level provided by ultraviolet photons, so over time they turn from polymers into quasicrystals and lose their strength -- disintegrate. But a black plastic, by excluding the ultraviolet light, protects itself and lasts much longer. So a bot…

I thought black objects absorb all wavelengths, and white objects reflect them all away.

Real world materials are rarely ideal black bodies (or ideal reflectors).

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#27

Post by throwaway9848 »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #21
etler wrote: post #10

This isn't an alternative to the light bulb. This is an alternative to the window for people living in slums that can't afford glass.

Probably you've never seen a slum, so let me explain: - Houses are juxtaposed to each other, there's no room for windows - Roofs are corrugated, so you can't easily fit a top glass panel even if you have the money for one. - There are transparent, fiber glass roofs, and some people use those, but often they don't get to choose the materials used to build the house, just use what is available. So this is a quite nice…

All those sound plausible (having never been to a favela), and if true I agree with you on almost all counts.

But it's still not a substitute for a light bulb unless it works in the dark.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#28

Post by throwaway420 »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #6

Or you could just open a window.

In poorer areas, houses are sometimes made by essentially stacking up and leaning sheets of metal against a few pieces of wood, more or less. Decent windows often aren't a very viable solution. Light bulbs would be usable, but you sometimes have to get electricity (if available at all) by literally running a wire either directly to the power line or across the road and then stringing it up to the power line yourself. So your comment misses a key point about life in these countries.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#29

Post by throwaway420 »

rickdale wrote: post #15

The title of this article bothers me since the article focuses much more on the bottle and light and rather than how poor and proud Alfredo Moser is. Regardless, pretty cool exposure of life in the slums, I'd bet there are more 'hacks' as a means of survival that are necessary there, but we wouldn't think twice about. I will say the article is good, just don't like the title.

I can understand being proud of a beneficial invention and offering something to people without taking money for it. He's done an amazing good deed and hopefully will be remembered for this. But I don't understand the title of the article because I think taking pride in poverty is a weird position to be taking. The headline might just be catchy click bait.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#30

Post by e3pi »

Down below, a deck prism illumination is astonishing. Drilling a round hole in the cabin sole is way easier, and a discarded plastic bottle is far less expensive than a vintage Criitenden & Willcox prism. Separate the bleach if you get real thirsty? Watch your head(pun?).
Post reply on HN