Krill Electronic Glow Sticks Reviewed (Verdict: For Some, a Good Solution)

Daniel Rutter has reviewed the "Krill electronic glow sticks," electro-luminescent tubes that emulate chemical glo-sticks, but are powered by batteries. As per usual, reading one of Dan's meticulous reviews of products others might glide right past is rustic delight, a surprise pat of butter in the middle of a slice of cornbread. (Perhaps "rustic" implies something slip-shod, which Dan's work is not. How about "artisanal"?)

Even my old dim AA stick - an "Original" model, as opposed to the much brighter "Extreme" version - is a heck of a lot better than nothing if you needed to find your way in the dark. Its light output is similar to that of the backlight on many small mobile phones, and heaven knows enough people have used those as flashlights in a pinch.

The approximate illumination threshold for human colour vision - which doesn't really matter when your light source only has one colour in it, but stay with me here - is about one lux. The minimum illumination level for any kind of useful vision at all, for normal adult humans whose eyes have adjusted to the dark, is about 0.1 lux. You'll probably still be able to grope your way around with less than 0.1 lux - if you've got decent night vision, even the 0.001 lux of a clear moonless night is better than nothing - but 0.1 lux is a pretty good place to put the line below which you'll start using touch as much as vision.

Krill electronic glow sticks (from smallest to biggest!) [Dan's Data]

[#1 posted by Skwid , October 3, 2007 9:33 AM]

Yeah, yeah...the torch makes a decent lightsaber substitute... The obvious unanswered question, here, is "How are these things for dancing?"

[#2 posted by anangbhai , October 5, 2007 6:50 PM]

Uh..no. The obvious question is, how will this light look like a mile under sea-level and will it allow me to distinguish between the red wire and the blue wire as I attempt to disarm a nuclear weapon while breathing liquid oxygen.

[#3 posted by Skwid , November 8, 2007 8:29 PM]

I'm pretty sure that if you're trying to breathe liquid oxygen you've got more immediate problems than decision-making.