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spkingwordzofwizdom t1_j12e6t8 wrote

Then all the investors loved him,

And they shouted out with glee.

Hey Nick Ho-lo-ny-ak,

Thanks for creating L-E-Ds!

EDIT: Edited for the musicians in the crowd...

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neatandawesome t1_j12f4fc wrote

Little known fact, early red LEDs were shreikingly loud /s

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Earllad t1_j12f6vn wrote

The same model of bulb, or that same bulb exactly?

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undergroundgeek OP t1_j12h3j1 wrote

I would slightly lean toward same exact bulb if you read the article. But it could be just a model it was based from? Not sure, so I had to pick. I tried to find other sources to verify but couldn’t find any. Smithsonian seemed reputable source, let me know if you find any others.

Edit: comma and more words.

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werdt456 t1_j12lqbk wrote

How is it problematic?

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necromundus t1_j12n2i7 wrote

I have never heard Rudolph's nose referred to as 'bioluminescent'

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Riegel_Haribo t1_j12olu6 wrote

Who invented that LED? GE. It was visible, from your article "Within months of the invention, General Electric was selling Holonyak’s red LEDs"

And was there any connection?

"...points out that the television special, bankrolled by GE for its General Electric Fantasy Hour, took about 18 months to complete and cost more than $500,000 to produce, an amount that would exceed $4.5 million today."

Rudolph could have had one of RCA's green LEDs - 1958. And RCA had blue in 1972.

Rudolph figure had "lost" its nose when it came to Antiques Roadshow in 2006, or maybe just resold in 1965?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0GaNTdZA8 - it then auctioned for $400000, (but that didn't keep some slimebag Christmas museum from keeping their $20000 gofundme donations to acquire it.)

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AudieCowboy t1_j133dlm wrote

General electric also makes the GAU-8 auto cannon and washing machines

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bumpywigs t1_j133w5y wrote

Til Rudolph the reindeer came from a American kids TV programme

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Car_weeb t1_j13hq7a wrote

The art for this show was so damn creepy

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ZylonBane t1_j13x0an wrote

You know the author of that article must be a zoomer if she refers to an oldschool LED as a "bulb". Nobody ever called them that until very recently.

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markydsade t1_j13zbmt wrote

I call BS on the bulb being LED. I’ve read multiple books and articles about the production and never heard that a cutting edge light for the time was used. All reports I read were that it was a 12 volt incandescent bulb connected to a battery from a wire running through his leg. Also, it’s pretty clear the light ramps up and down like an incandescent bulb, unlike an LED.

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ShiningRayde t1_j1477fc wrote

Really kinda weird seeing 'bioluminescent' up there

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Seraph062 t1_j14a57a wrote

GE doesn't make either of those now.

GE made the original GAU-8s, but GE sold that part of the company to Martin Marietta in 1993. Martin Marietta was bought by Lockheed in 1995 to from Lockheed Martin, and then Lockheed Martin sold it General Dynamics 1997.

Similarly GE once made washing machines, but the appliances part of GE was sold to Haier in 2016.

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Seraph062 t1_j14f3te wrote

> Rudolph could have had one of RCA's green LEDs - 1958.

You're confusing things here: RCA had a patent for an infrared LED in 1958 (developed by Braunstein Rubin and Egon Loebner, and documented in US Patent 3102201). RCA also had a Green LED in the 70's (US Patent 3819974) but that was a different technology developed by a different group of people.

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Kizmo2 t1_j14ip1d wrote

Thank you for posting this.

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PorkshireTerrier t1_j15dapt wrote

Before this people just lit their Christmas trees on fire

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aelwero t1_j1607aa wrote

It's an understandable assumption IMHO. My mind goes directly to algae when bioluminescence is mentioned, simply because it's the only form I've seen firsthand, and was around it quite a bit.

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AnthillOmbudsman t1_j162kea wrote

I would be curious when these first started appearing in homes. Wikipedia just focuses on the research rather than the rollout in products.

I figure stereo equipment is a good place to look, and just a quick scan suggests manufacturers weren't putting LEDs in until around 1975. Here's a deck from 1975 that was using the bulbs.

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HeavyMetalOverbite t1_j16k0ln wrote

LEDs are solid-state Diodes, not bulbs. Bulbs are fragile glass things which break when dropped. LEDs are chip's embedded in plastic.

L.E.D

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WaySuch296 t1_j18isou wrote

The term LED light bulb seems like a misnomer to me. Simply LED seems right.

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