Egyptian Lightbulb?

All history students are fascinated by strange things in history which are unknown or partially known to people today. As was posted in my last entry, I thoroughly enjoy such things.

This second 'mystery' points to a small ancient store room in Denderah, Egypt. On the wall, there is an inscription of what many historians and wishful thinkers see as a light bulb. Others believe it is a religious scene of a snake being born from a flower.

To evaluate the truth to the light bulb theory, one must look at the materials and skills needed to produce a lamp of this sort. The first is glass, the second is a vacuum, and the third is electricity.

While no one knows how far back glass was invented, we do know that the Egyptians made usable glass objects by dipping sand figurines in vats of molten glass. Could Egyptian scientists make a stable enough glass bulb to hold a vacuum?

Perhaps it wasnt necessary. According to some, this light bulb could have been filled with an inert gas heavier than oxygen. This is entirely possible yet it is equally unprovable that it was done. Assuming it was, they still need a sizable enough source of electricity.

For this, archeologists have found what is known as the 'Baghdad battery;' essentially, it's a jar that can be (and was) filled with a number of different substances. Throughout the ancient world, people were getting low-voltage results by combining acidic fruit juice with quiones (a chemical that can be harvested from common Egyptian scarab beetles - vinegar and other substances could also be used) while sticking a 1/4" thick, solid copper bar encircled by an approximately 1" in diameter iron tube vertically in the center. The currently accepted conjecture for the use of this battery deals with using this and a spatula to bind gold on the surface of silver objects. Naturally, this 'out there' suggestion of a light bulb demands a different interpretation.

The theory of this 'Denderah light bulb' has been stuck in my head for a while. The weakest point of the argument is the isolation of heavy gases or the creation of the vacuum. Perhaps this is just another mystery of the past that students can glaze over to make the memory of neoclassical and modern scientists seem more original. I leave you with these low quality videos (comment if you can find better) of a plasma lamp designed to prove the feasibility of the drawn design. In the latter video, it is a nonworking model where the location of the batteries can be seen.





Does this support the 'aliens help build the pyramids' theory?

Sources:
http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/Denderahlightbulb.html

http://www.kinsalecrystal.ie/history.htm

http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/bbattery.htm (among others for the battery...used about 15 of them)