Adam Savage Catches Lightning in a Bottle – Unimpossible Missions
With the help of a super capacitor and the LED lights he loves so much, Adam Savage shows how GE scientists were able to capture lightning and harness its energy in order to start a car! (Watch more here!)
26 thoughts on “Adam Savage Catches Lightning in a Bottle – Unimpossible Missions”
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Darn. While this is good information and monetarily provides us with great Tested content, I was hoping that Adam would build something using the capacitor or based on the idiom.
Many of us come here to see you all build cool stuff. I, for one, am fine with seeing GE advertisements on this channel, but I would like to see the videos made by Tested have the great Making content we show up for.
The last video (Talking to a Wall) with Adam testing the vibration transducer was close. For future reference, could you try to make something with your sponsors’ devices. That seems like a good compromise to me. Do other Tested watchers agree?
I agree. Plugging in an led strip to the capacitor could have been an interesting start to an experiment. Adam mentioned that it held 7500 joules, but it just left me with more questions than answers. Why didn’t it all discharge in one go and fry the strip if it was compared to a flash bulb? How long would the strip stay lit with a full charge? What happens if we stuck our tongues on the wire? These are the things I’d like to know. I’d take a wild guess and assume that there was a specific script to follow though, so leaves little room for improvisation.
Now what I’d REALLY like to see is a final video of a contraption being built using all of GE’s sponsored tech in one experiment. Bonus points if it becomes sentient.
Brain storming idea here. Literally capture lightning in a bottle. Basically launch a small rocket with a thin copper line attached to it during a thunder storm. Have the copper line travel through a pack of these capacitors, and finally bleed the captured energy out to power a house or building.
Just a thought.
Cool video series, thanks
Good grief. How many videos are in this series?
So I’m paying for someone building lego, doing papercrafts, rating apps like it’s 2010 and now this?
Yes, and I really don’t get why they think this is interesting for the public here.. which I guess is who they’re targeting. I would be totally fine just running the GE ad without any of Tested added to the mix, it would make it better, but only when done right. I watch plenty of channels that do this much better, staying true to their public and themselves.
What exactly did you *think* you were getting?
Edited- Oops, wrong video!
More of the one day builds and general maker stuff. Papercraft and lego does not fall into that category.
The thing is, Grimnar… your Premium subscription funds more that stuff too, and a lot more so than Lego/Craft vids that require almost no editing. Most of the Premium vids are cheap to do, because they use the subscription money for doing One Day Builds and other highly involved free-to-watch content. That was always the idea.
If you look back a couple of years, you’ll see that there was a One Day Build every couple of months and a project vid every couple of weeks. Now it is closer to one ODB per week and a project video every few days.
Partly that is because Adam now has a lot more time to spend in the shop, but it is also because they have a lot more subscribers and have been able to hire another Editor as well as going from 3 active on-screen contributors (Norm, Will, Adam) to 7 (Norm, Adam, Simone, Frank, Jeremy, Sean and Kishore).
And if you were expecting that your premium-cash would fund more exclusive series, it does, just look at Bits-to-atoms, This Old FX Shop, Worldbuilders (sword making vid at Weta), Tested Builds.
Not renewing my premium membership with this much sponsored content. I am literally paying to watch ads.
Yeah I agree to some extent, would be nice though if they could show the money-flow a bit. Thing is, most of us (especially premium members) are interested in maker-video’s, like Bits-to-Atoms. I think Bits-to-Atoms is something we haven’t seen for a looooong time and it shows if you look at the comments. I certainly like the other video’s like the one in the artic, but that’s so expensive I sometimes wonder if it’s really worth it for the site itself (for them personally that’s a total different story ofcourse). I think most people here would like to see more variety in the real maker video’s, less lego (albeit it’s fun, not saying that), etc. I think they’re a little bit caught up into spending more and more to make the site seem more professional or have more wow-projects, while in a lot of cases (I think) people here want to learn.
“Most of us” is a pretty big assumption to make, I’m not saying it is wrong, I’m just saying you probably have very little to base that on, and that considering the number of members on this site the amount of critical comments re: formats and content is absolutely tiny. Even more so if you remove complaints about personal politics or the *amount* (not substance) of Premium Content.
That seems to suggest they are hitting the balance of making/tech/art/pop-culture/science/etc. and their formatting pretty damned well if compared to any site with a comparable variety in its content.
To put a more accurate title “Adam Savage doesn’t catch lightning, and don’t use a bottle”. I wonder what’s coming next; “Too many cooks spoil the broth – or so they say! A team of 100 GE engineers set out to test this by working together to make some soup in a specially designed titanium saucepan.”
The star wars millienium falcon build would be nice….
You are very much a shill for this site and defend any criticisms with respectable veracity. My personal vote is that you are a paid supporter…… too.
So my wife said “that dude should maybe shave his neck/back before the decide to use dramatic backlighting”. Bwaaaa Haaaaaaaa
True, I have little basis to support that, but it’s a relatively safe assumption given the people who have been here since day 1 and the type of content they had back then. Also, whenever people are enthusiastic about a video or project, I see comment sections exploding towards 30-50 comments, which is almost always the case under maker video’s. The Verge as a site is more of a general culture site that falls under all categories you mention, Tested has never been that. I think they want to maybe steer that way, but that’s where the discussion arises. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but I do wonder if the balance is right.. and if it’s not, the more money is spend on other stuff that requires these kind of ads.. the less the people looking for that maker-sphere are interested. And that worries me slightly, I like to see a site which is unique and caters to a relative niche audience. Many here would gladly pay for that (also an assumption) and many don’t like it this way. If the other projects are too expensive.. I’d argue a change in type of projects might be interesting.
I’m obviously paid by Soros, John.
But really, I’m just a long time fan of the site who has gotten increasingly tired of the ridiculous entitlement of a very small subset of Tested visitors, who for some inexplicable reason think a $40 subscription fee makes them associate editors of the site’s content. It really gets annoying after a year or two.
What content are you referring to from “back then”? From day 1 and two years onwards the site was exclusively tech reviews and sillyness. If anything, those are the videos that get the least engagement these days… and I’d say “most people” from day one are no longer active here because the maker vids didn’t mesh with their interests. Go look at a comment thread from before (or especially during) the Adam/Jamie relaunch in 2012 and see how many of those accounts are still around…
Ok, point taken. But if I look at what the main citicism is, as you say it tires you after a few years, it’s alway the same or similar. Youtube is no source at all ofcourse, but if I sift through the comments there (not to be adviced), the serious criticisms are again the same. And maybe for most it’s fine and the whole site could be taken over by ads, it’s just that if it starts to be more of that, less of the built video’s and more a general The Verge kind of thing, I would find that a pitty. I think we’re both fans of the site, you’re ok with it and I have some doubts, especially when the same crew is doing ads that so clearly isn’t what they stand for. If we get more of the quality video’s like Bits to Atoms, I’m in, maybe still would like better ads, but ok. Im just afraid that’s nit the direction.
It is supposedly impossible catch lightning in a bottle so GE engineers challenged themselves by doing something else entirely, catching lighting in a capacitor.
Some would say it’s impossible to go 100 kph on a bicycle so today on the way home from work I’m gonna go way faster than that, on a train…
Not only are these videos kinda shit but the GE videos and their premise are too.
The saying also refers to being able to react to something that essentially happens at the speed of light. It is less about lightning being impossible to catch in an electrically insulated glass bottle, and more about capturing something that is over before you are able to register it.
Oh, never heard it in that sense. Doesn’t help the video though…
It sure doesn’t :p
Most of the time when I hear the saying it is not just referring to something being difficult, but specifically to some opportunity or creative spark that the person had to be almost uniquely prepared to exploit right then and there or it would be over/had gotten away. Like an artist having spent a lifetime developing a style that suddenly for a brief time became incredibly popular due to some recent event or zeitgeist, or someone being in the exact right place for a chance encounter that no one else could have turned into something special.
I for one am absolutely loving Tested.com ! I love the Legos, paper craft, crossover content with other channels , it’s all great! Some content definitely better than others, but I’m watching all of it.
Of course I want more, lots more, (ideally loads more one day builds) but we have to be realistic, they have a realitivly tiny budget for 4+ staff, SF location(s) and all the equipment they have. Our $40 really doesn’t go that far.
Keep up the amazing work tested.com thank you for the great work you bring us, and keep it coming 🙂