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A YouTuber rebuilt a mercury light bulb discovered in 1675

Ellsworth Toohey
Jul 23, 2026
∙ Paid

mercury light bulb —

In 1675, the French astronomer Jean Picard noticed something strange while carrying his mercury barometer through a dark room: the mercury glowed as it sloshed around the bulb. Two centuries before Edison, he had stumbled onto a working light source. The effect became a favorite puzzle for the leading scientists of the day, who calle…

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