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Luminous Books

Something else to do during a power cut.
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Books should be printed with luminous ink
so that you can read them in the dark.
DrBob, Sep 21 2002

Phosphorescent pyjamas http://www.halfbake...horescent_20pyjamas
[hippo, Sep 23 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Stuff about ink http://glossary.ipp...owledge/article/236
Some technical info. [DrBob, Oct 05 2004, last modified Nov 01 2009]


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Annotation:







       I faced with this problem on this years oligatory camping trip with the venomous male youth subset of the famille Ivan. I have a lantern, but it is of the high pressure petrol vapour type and has two drawbacks. It is quite excessively bright and has caused shipping to run aground when camping on the coast, secondly it is absolutely terrifying to be within 10 yards of.
My solution was to postulate the luminous tent but I concede yours is a more elegant solution.
IvanIdea, Sep 21 2002
  

       I know where I could use it, in the car when I'm a passenger travelling at night - where turning on the interior light would distract the driver. I usually end up contorting myself up against the window to trying to see in the moonlight.
Helium, Sep 21 2002
  

       A battery operated fluro light, with a blacklight tube, might be useful for illuminating books without disturbing sleepers. Because, modern paper is full of 'brightners', chemicals that fluoresce under UV.
pfperry, Sep 21 2002
  

       Humm, feel like a little light reading this evening.
FarmerJohn, Sep 21 2002
  

       I would prefer that the pages be luminous and the ink remain black. For one thing the book would still be readable by day, possibly not the case with luminous ink (which would probably have to be whiteish on dark paper stock to work well, no?)
bristolz, Sep 21 2002
  

       bris, yes the pages would have to be darker in order to make the luminous writing more legible during daylight. After you raised it, I thought that this might be a problem until yesterday, when I was talking to a friend who is involved in adult education. He happened to mention that a high percentage of those who suffer from dyslexia only do so because we use black ink on a white background. Apparently this causes a visual problem and the words become blurred or move around on the page (I'm sure someone will correct me if I've misunderstood) so, I guess it's somewhat akin to colour blindness. So, using a dark page with luminous writing might be the way to go for books. Of course, a lot of those who have no trouble with reading at the moment might suddenly become dyslexic when the new system comes in but we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Turn and turn about I say.
DrBob, Sep 23 2002
  

       A draw back: You would need to charge the book by holding it open near a light source for long enough to allow the phosphors (or whatever) gather enough energy to luminesce for a significant amount of time. So you'd only be able to read the two pages that were open (or perhaps a few more that the light has penetrated to). And if you could charge more, you'd probably have to read quick.

There is a solution: use radium or some similar substance. But there might be a drawback with this too...
namaste, Sep 23 2002
  

       Or you could just wear Phosphorescent Pyjamas (see link). Then all your existing books become readable in the dark.
hippo, Sep 23 2002
  

       So, namaste, I'd have to come up with some sort of device that opens the book and turns all the pages during the day then? Book accessories, eh? I feel a commercial gold mine coming on!

hippo, what if I don't wear jim-jams? What with your pyjamas and Ivan's tent this is all beginning to sound like an episode (well all of the episodes I suppose) from Scooby Doo. "..and I would have finished my book too if it wasn't for those pesky kids!"

[Notes a fishbone appearing whilst writing anno]
Philistine!
DrBob, Sep 23 2002
  

       veeeeeeery good idea...being the bookworm that I am...but is that possible? they could print with regular ink then place glow-in-the-dark ink on top... if there is such a thing as glow-in-the-dark ink ^-^
sailormoonfan, Jan 25 2003
  

       Rats. I was going to post the following in its own right, but after seeing this, I'm putting it here instead.   

       Glow in the Dark Ink   

       Mix ink with glow in the dark stuff for lights-out reading.   

       Bio- and chemiluminescent materials degrade too quickly, so I’m thinking Radium, like they used to use for painting clock hands to bee seen in the dark, until they noticed that the workers who painted the radium onto the clock hands were getting sick. Radium’s probably expensive, so texts would likely have to be printed on a “to order” basis. Such items would be marketed as luxury goods and priced accordingly.   

       A lead smock with protective gloves and headwear should be worn when handling the printed matter.   

       Glow in the dark paints and inks currently exist, but applications appear to be restricted to brush or silkscreen painting.
snarfyguy, Mar 17 2003
  

       I think you could do something very snifty with this:   

       Use black ink on a white background for daytime, but lace the ink with phosphresent dyes that are clear when not glowing.   

       Then, you could do one of 2 things: Either a blacklight LED booklight to illumnate perminantly, or a blacklight flashlight to trigger the glowing of the text.. would only take about 5sec per 2 pages with enough intensity.
JackandJohn, Mar 17 2003
  

       Save the trees. Get an eBook!   

       (Seriously, I do almost all my reading on my Palm PDA and no longer have a bedside lamp. When I was reading a dead-tree book recently, I turned off the main light, got into bed and felt foolish when I reached for the book!)
ian_mackereth, Nov 23 2004
  

       got a new book!
po, Nov 23 2004
  

       Anything exciting, [po]?   

       Palm-reading... not convinced. I read a lot, both dead-tree and PDA, and I find the screen size on the PDA does tend to spoil the narrative flow... it's just too small, it's difficult to refer to stuff, and turning pages so often just ruins my rhythm. So I'm told, anyway.
moomintroll, Nov 23 2004
  

       If they can make glow in the dark tile grout they should be able to make glow in the dark text. Perhaps you have a page comb that slightly separates the pages & you leave the book in the window sill during the day. (I really want glow in the dark tile grout) If only the book also had an alarm clock.
Zimmy, Nov 24 2004
  

       This would be cool for horror novels but you'd have to read it in about 5 minutes though before the luminous ink needed to be recharged.   

       However I don't see any problem with highly radioactive radium ink printing provided the reader was in otherwise good health, read very quickly and had no intentions of using their reproductive organs any time in the future.
doctorremulac3, Aug 10 2005
  

       Brilliant idea. Pity about the time for charging and reading. Apparently you can get ultra-violet chargers for glow-in-the-dark putty, and they give quite a long time of glowingness - maybe this could be adapted?
dbmag9, Feb 06 2006
  

       Ideal for reading scary stories in the dark, toooooo
Dub, Oct 30 2009
  


 

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