Oil derrick 455 bubbler

Can you post a pic of the bubble tube with the glob? Is the tube positioned as close as possible to the bulb for maximum heating? What voltage is going to the light, 14v?

Rich brings up some good points, and I’ll add,….take the bubble glass and shake it vigorously to break up the clumps. That’s the chemical that produces the bubbles. After you’ve checked the obvious, and the bubbler still fails to delight, then the age of the tube has caught up to it…. Most big box craft stores still sell the real deal bubble lights in two packs for cheap…you can carefully harvest the bubble flask and use it in Lionel’s bubbling oil derricks, etc,….I’m a bubble light fiend, so when the bulbs croak, I harvest the bubble tube for projects like this….sometimes I’ve had to a wee bit of reamimg of plastic parts to make the new bubble glass fit, but they look 100% identical to the original Lionel ones ……

Pat

Hi Rich

It's hard to foto the glob. Attached.  Yes. 15v. No 51 bulb. Bulb touches the bubbler with a little thermal contact grease. When it just starts bubbling the glob comes from the bottom and floats around its about the same diameter as the tube.

Hi Pat

I had seen others using the Christmas bubblers. Shaking warm or room temp helped some. Glob is starting to break up but its still big. It is definitely bubbling faster than before. Ill keep shaking. Sugestions on hobby stores? I live on an island with no such options.

Thanks to both!!!!

That’s a nasty looking glob indeed. I never heard of using thermal contact grease in this application. Did this actually improve the bubbling? I wonder if continued heating and agitation would break it up. There are some reproductions tubes on eBay if you search Lionel 455-47 Oil Derrick Bubble Tube for less than $9. Hopefully you get it working to your satisfaction since it’s a great accessory, I enjoy mine.

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Chr...ent-Bulbs/p/80994308

Here ya go

Pat

Hi Rich

Yes.. thermal contact grease as used in electronics made a big difference! It does not melt and keeps a good thermal contact between bulb and bubbler.

I'm going to keep shaking and gently banging on my hand as it is slowly breaking up.

Thanks

Ron

Thanks Pat!

Ron

Here is how they work https://youtu.be/qTDtyFaAZy8?si=y6IrYiCyjzimbCEU

It is hard to see in your photo but it may be a segment of your crystals at the bottom has separated but you have enough to keep making bubbles. I had a long tube (American flyer oil well) that had the entire crystal mass separated and floated half way up the tube. That was a terminal event sad to say and no cheap replacement like at hobby lobby.

There is nothing in these tubes that should wear out.  The liquid (dichloromethane, aka "methylene chloride") is a toxic (which is why Lionel won't make them again), non-flammable liquid that boils a little above body temperature.  As heat is applied the temperature of the liquid near the bottom is raised to the point where boiling occurs.  Boiling occurs when the vapor pressure of the liquid (which is a function of temperature) exceeds the pressure inside the tube.  The main function of the crystals is to try and minimize thermal convention in the liquid so that most of the heat remains in the small volume underneath the solid.  The bulb isn't hot enough to heat up very much of the liquid.  Once the small trapped volume heats up to the boiling point, bubbles of dichloromethane vapor are produced (just like bubbles in boiling water just contain water vapor) which push the crystals out of the way and rise to the top.  Cold liquid takes the place of the space the bubbles occupied, the crystals drop down and the whole process repeats.  As the bubbles rise they cool as they pass through colder liquid.  As they cool the pressure inside the bubble decreases until the pressure inside the bubble drops below the pressure in the "empty" space at the top of the tube and the bubble collapses.  There is no chemical reaction involved and nothing to wear out except the light bulb.

Although pure compounds like water and dichloromethane have specific freezing and boiling temperatures (although boiling temperatures depend on pressure) they don't always freeze or boil when they should.  That is why you need to be careful trying to boil water in a microwave.  The water can superheat above its boiling point and then when you agitate it by taking the container out, the water can violently erupt since it is above its boiling temperature.  Water will also supercool below its freezing temperature if left undisturbed.  If you put bottled water in a freezer long enough that it should freeze, but doesn't, take it out and shake it and the entire volume immediately solidifies.  This is why shaking these tubes once they have heated up will sometimes cause the boiling to occur. 

To function properly the gas in the top of the tube needs to be colder (less pressure) than the liquid at the bottom.  Sometimes putting your "ice cold" fingers on the gas space at the top will make them bubble.  The greater the temperature differential between the gas at the top and the gas in the bubble at the bottom the better they work.

I have a number of American Flyer bubbling water towers and oil derricks which all have very long tubes.  I have found that I can easily make them work if  I tip them on their sides so that all the liquid drains to the top.  The bottom has no liquid to remove the heat of the bulb so the heat goes into heating just the glass.  After a minute or two I place them back right side up and the glass has now been heated hot enough that the liquid under the crystals is heated well above the boiling temperature and the boiling begins.  If the lamp is strong enough the boiling will continue indefinitely.  If the boiling stops after awhile, the bulb is not supplying enough heat to maintain the boiling.

Thanks. I appreciate your long response. Being a mechanical engineer with a background in thermodynamics I totally understand your analysis. However, my problem is that all of the crystals had bonded to form one big glob the same diameter as the tube and was stuck in the bottom. If you see on an earlier post the glob was quite large. I am guessing just because it sat unused for many years, Just like simple syrup the sugar will come out of solution if left to sit in a possible cool location.

But in response to one of the repliers I have shook and tapped the bubbler over and over. The glob is still there but with a much reduced diameter and many more individual crystals can be seen. Upon applying 14v to a 51 bulb the bubbler starts in about 30 sec compared to 3+ mins before. I am hoping with more use and as a result more heat to the solution the glob will continue to decrease in size but I will continue to shake it. But in summary it is now working much better than when I first fired it up.

Also just for anyone's interest, as I noted I added a little electronic  thermal contact grease to the bottom of the tube. This also greatly improved thermal conduction between the bulb and bubbler.

Thanks again,

Ron

Ron,

Since honey or syrup are super saturated solutions of sugar, eventually some of the sugar will precipitate.  It's the solubility analog to super cooling and super heating.  I am pretty sure that is not what is happening to form the solid you see.  Maybe the plug is not a collection of fused crystals, but a porous plug that has detached from the bottom of the tube?  Or maybe the "crystals" are made of something that melts if the tube gets too hot, or someone tries to get the bubbling to start by not so carefully using a heat gun?

The thermal grease has always been a good recommendation to improve the operation of these types of lights.  The #51 bulb is an 8 V bulb generating 1.7 W.  Running it at 14 volts will produce a lot more heat which helps the process, but I wouldn't expect a long bulb lifetime.

John

Hi John

You are absolutely correct on the no 51 bulb. At 14 v they do burn out quicker. Some posts in other strings recommend no 51. After I can get rid of the  glob I'll go back and try 363s again.

Ron