Glow Sticks

[seekermeister]

I bought a batch of light sticks on eBay, which I had intended to use for emergency utility lights on my vehicle. I have never used anything like this before, but I thought that they would emit enough light to serve the purpose but these don't, they only light up enough to serve as markers. Is that all that they are good for, or did I get some bad ones?

 

[Golden]

Victor Caballero: What is a glow stick, top 10 things to do with them and dangers?

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks for the link, but the only part of it that I found useful in this question, is where it says that all glow sticks are not equal, and that some are brighter than others by design. However, it doesn't really define how one would predetermine which is which...do you know?

 

[Golden]

I guess by the luminescent power, but I'm not sure.....I only use them when I'm drunk at parties.

Perhaps this might help : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_stick

 

[boohbah]

they work better at night seeker!

if they are non toxic you can mix them up with childrens bubble liquid and have glow in the dark bubbles the neighborhood kids will be well impressed.

these are the ones you want, they use them on oil rigs as there is no spark .electric and are non metal if dropped to prevent disasters.

http://www.hitchnhike.co.uk/acatalog/cyalume_light_sticks.html

 

[seekermeister]

I guess by the luminescent power, but I'm not sure.....I only use them when I'm drunk at parties.

Perhaps this might help : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_stick

Thanks again, but those links provide lots of info, except what I'm looking for...a way to know in advance if a particular glow sticks will perform the way that I have in mind. None of the ads that I have seen specify luminescence or anything else that let's one compare one to another, except size, which doesn't seem to mean much.

Maybe that is all that one can know, but if that is true, I will have to abandon this idea altogether.

 

[boohbah]

 

[seekermeister]

Looking at that video, it appears that those sticks are a lot brighter than what I got, since you could see the glow on her face in daylight. It also said that they were good for 1 hour, which concurs with the idea that the brighter ones last a shorter time. However, searching eBay and Google, most of what I found were 8 or 12 hour sticks. I did find some that were 3 hour military tactical sticks, but nothing that would indicate that they were as bright as the one in the video. Do you know where to get them...preferably in the USA?

EDIT: I think that I found one provider for those sticks, though the duration is given as 30 minutes, rather than an hour as in the ad. The problem is that they are a lot more expensive than what I bought. I would like to find them a little cheaper:

http://www.amazon.com/Cyalume-SnapLight-Alternative-Chemical-Intensity/dp/B004NBZL8I

 

[boohbah]

why dont you use a torch.

 

[seekermeister]

Assuming that what you mean by a torch, is what we call a flashlight here, I may end up doing just that. The problem with that idea is that the kind of flashlight that I would want would be too big, and the batteries shelf life too short for my preference. But finding that the shelf life is not very good for these SnapLights, and their cost of replacement not insignificant, I may go back to the flashlight anyway.

 

[boohbah]

we used to use these little ones on our fishing floats when night fishing