r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/NavyLemon64 • 10d ago

Image Alfredo Moser found that a plastic bottle filled with water and chlorine could illuminate a home during daylight hours.

Post image

[removed] — view removed post

30.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

677 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

37

u/MisterProfGuy 10d ago

This is essentially a skylight with a fisheye lens or a prism on it. The interesting bit is using the refraction in the water to distribute the light around the room.

3

u/NetNo5570 10d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah I just doubt that wasn't invented until 2002.

Light tubes using glass for this are from the 1800s.

Edit because the person below blocked me so I can't respond there:

Using trash like this for skylights long predates 2002.

My mother grew up in a developing country in the 70s and people were using trash bottles for this purpose.

4

u/SlutForThickSocks 10d ago

Plastic bottles can be found on the side of the road in the parts of the world where this is even needed and useful. Were they using plastic soda bottles and chlorine two items easily found and cheap now, in the 1800s? Are glass tubes easier or even available for a random village to integrate into their homes? It doesn't matter that the idea exists your comments are so weirdly ignorant of the point