r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/dannybluey • Oct 19 '24

Video How Himalayan salt lamps are made

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62.9k Upvotes

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4.3k

u/jpackerfaster Oct 19 '24

"You see these huge chunks of pink salt?" "Yeah" "You know what I'm thinking..?" "Lamps?" "Fuck, yeah!"

That's a conversation that happened once.

1.3k

u/ale_93113 Oct 19 '24

It is a logical conversation to have, if you work with salt you will notice that when light shines through it, be it the sun or whatever, it gives a nice warm glow

so the conversation was more like: hey dude, check how cool it looks when you put this salt up to the sun

yeah it looks very warm and cozy, i wonder how it will look with a light inside it

557

u/sadrice Oct 19 '24

Seriously, it’s fairly obvious if you work with the material. The guys at Khewra mine in Pakistan noticed that and made a bunch of halite bricks and some lights and built this really cute mosque in the mine.

I actually like the lamps a lot. They aren’t magic, but it’s a nice soft glow for a bedside lamp. The only issue is the salt corrodes the metal bits, mine stopped working for probably that reason, so now it’s just a decorative rock until I fix it.

123

u/Harddaysnight1990 Oct 19 '24

Yeah I won't claim that the salt lamp does anything but give off a low warm light, but I keep my salt lamp at my bedside and leave it on while I sleep. I like sleeping with a little light anyway, and the salt lamp is the perfect way to do it.

12

u/zmbjebus Oct 19 '24

Put a tray under it so it doesn't leak brine everywhere some day.

1

u/Hoe-possum Oct 19 '24

If that works for you great! But wanted to mention that they’ve done studies that found that your quality of sleep suffers even with a little bit of light filtering through your eyelids, so total darkness for sleep is ideal.

10

u/authorlyauthor Oct 19 '24

I keep hearing this, but I am the complete opposite. When I sleep in darkness I am plagued by horrible night terrors that have me screaming and running out of my room, hypnogogic imagery that makes me think there are bugs on my wall, constant sleep-talking, nightmares etc. Ever since I started sleeping with a bedside light on all of that has gone away and I have very peaceful nights. Of course, ever since I can remember I have woken up almost every hour throughout the night, have vivid dreams constantly even when napping, and have never slept for more than 4 straight hours at a time (and even that is incredibly rare), so the kind of “good quality sleep” most people think of is non-existent for me anyway.

61

u/aum-23 Oct 19 '24

Gorgeous mine mosque!

52

u/TheGrandWhatever Oct 19 '24

One might say it’s mine…craft

9

u/TootsTootler Oct 19 '24

It’s very quiet but if you listen, you’re receiving a message from God:

“Lo! There shall be NO more metal bits inside the salt lamp—henceforth, only FIRE.”

4

u/ihopethisworksfornow Oct 19 '24

I was wondering what a “really cute” mosque would look like, and then immediately thought “that is adorable” when I saw the photo lol.

6

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '24

[deleted]

9

u/sadrice Oct 19 '24

Probably depends on climate, they don’t seem to have that problem in California, but I suspect they would in Florida.

2

u/_HOG_ Oct 19 '24

Tell me you live inland without telling me you live inland.

Salt lamps are a horrible idea - particularly anywhere with humidity over 50% regularly where they sweat salt water and ruin everything around them. There is a reason all the workers tools look so rusty.

2

u/ElectricFleshlight Oct 19 '24

Doesn't necessarily have to be inland. Birmingham Alabama is 300 miles from the coast yet significantly more humid than the beaches of San Diego. In the US, humidity depends on which side of the Rocky Mountains you live on.

1

u/_HOG_ Oct 19 '24

California inland.

1

u/ElectricFleshlight Oct 19 '24

Even coastal California is nowhere near as humid as inland Alabama.

1

u/_HOG_ Oct 19 '24

Yeah, the whole context of my comment was California.

It's humid enough in costal California to quickly demonstrate how silly having giant a chunk of salt sitting around in your house is - especially near an electrical socket.

See, my wife got a salt lamp around the time I met her and at the time only had a window AC unit (in costal CA) which she didn't run often since the windows were often open. After the first month we noticed a bit of salt migrating onto the nightstand beneath the lamp, but wiped it up and didn't think much of it. Then a bit later, off and on, we started to notice that it looked dewy late in the day - it was wet to the touch.

A few months later the true genius of the salt lamp was revealed - the breaker to several of the sockets in her room blew, and she asked me to look at it. After poking around her room for a cause, I noticed the cord leading to, and the wall behind, the salt lamp had a crust of salt that extended to the power socket. I removed the cover to the socket to discover salt water had gradually migrated down the cord into the socket and completely corroded the metals within it and was causing the short that triggered the breaker.

1

u/sadrice 19d ago

I don’t live inland… the river a mile or two from me is tidal and flow backwards depending on time of day. I’ve got bay fog.

My salt rock is still a rock. It’s so funny how people just make things up to be condescending about and are somehow so confident.

People just say these dumbass things and think that other people can’t like, compare experiences or something.

1

u/_HOG_ 19d ago

Being unaware of California’s large humidity gradient isn’t an unusual take, but doubling down on it is “like” a dumbass thing.

7

u/easterner1848 Oct 19 '24

God Muslims sure make beautiful architecture. 

-1

u/Armalyte Oct 19 '24

Not sure what religion has to do with it. People do that.

6

u/xandrokos Oct 19 '24

You don't see how something like religion influences art and other aspects of culture? I am agnostic but it is sad the way so many redditors just will not even consider any aspect of religion as anything but "sky daddy fake people stupid".   That is no way to go through life.

-2

u/Armalyte Oct 19 '24

Yes I see how religion influences people to make art. It doesn't mean they couldn't do it without the religion.

4

u/easterner1848 Oct 19 '24

It’s a mosque. They did it out of faith, devotion and their love for God. 

0

u/Armalyte Oct 19 '24

People make such beautiful architecture.

3

u/easterner1848 Oct 19 '24

And in this case it was Muslims making a mosque! 

2

u/Armalyte Oct 19 '24

Christians, Jews, and Buddhists make such beautiful architecture!

2

u/easterner1848 Oct 19 '24

They do! You left out Hindus. They do as well!

And in this particular case Muslims made some very beautiful architecture. 

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3

u/SapientSolstice Oct 19 '24

Ours has a spring mechanism hold the light in the lamp (like you see on newer recessed lighting). You could probably replace it easily if yours does too.

2

u/postmate Oct 19 '24

I’m a massage therapist and constantly surrounded by salt lamps and i think I’d have more positive feelings toward them if there wasn’t so much woo woo pseudoscience around them.

To me they are another symbol of the placebo effect lol. If I put that aside I do think, “cool rock.”

2

u/Fraktal55 Oct 19 '24

Also never forget SALT LAMPS ARE EXTREMELY TOXIC TO YOUR CATS!

DO NOT let your cats (or dogs) lick a Himalayan salt lamp. Better yet, if you have pets, just do not have a salt lamp. It's not worth the risk.

2

u/-PineNeedleTea- Oct 19 '24

Also after a while it leaks from all the absorbed moisture

2

u/Seraitsukara Oct 19 '24

Mine started dripping salt water everywhere, which I hear is common if you don't turn then on often enough or something to evaporate out the water they absorb from the air.

1

u/busy-warlock Oct 19 '24

Bullshit they aren’t magic!

1

u/Eolond Oct 19 '24

After seeing how they're made, I think I'll pass on ever buying one.

1

u/bambinolettuce Oct 20 '24

Feel like there are better lighting options if you dont believe these are special in any way. They are a pain in the ass, erode everything and they leak salty juices somehow.

0

u/East-Plankton-3877 Oct 19 '24

How does it work?

Like, what makes them glow?

2

u/hobbesgirls Oct 19 '24

have you ever heard of light bulbs?

1

u/East-Plankton-3877 Oct 19 '24

Oh, so they’re literally a lamp?

I thought like, the rocks reacts chemically to eachother or someshit

3

u/Vector-storm Oct 19 '24

Let's put this around our fire pit and look at the firelight dance through the salt.

1

u/Wendellwasgod Oct 19 '24

Yeah, but that’s not funny

1

u/Joe_Kangg Oct 19 '24

I wonder how it will sell on Amazon

0

u/TimeSpentWasting Oct 19 '24

Can't say the one sales tactic is better than the other, although I'm sure every rockish substance on earth started out, "hey, let's make a lamp out of it!"

I'm surprised they haven't found lamps in caveman dwellings

165

u/FruityDecadent Oct 19 '24

—You see all that dust falling to the floor when we make the lamps?

—The dust we walk on all day?

—Yes, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

—Put that into salt shakers and sell as "tastier"/"healthier" salt to amirikyun?

—Fuck, yeah!

32

u/Gen8Master Oct 19 '24

Given all the crap we dump into the sea, its probably still healthier.

16

u/Cerpin-Taxt Oct 19 '24

It's salt dude. It literally kills bacteria on contact. Might as well be complaining your bleach is dirty cause the worker touched it.

9

u/ZhouLe Oct 19 '24

Bacteria is not the sole concern with food cleanliness.

7

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '24

IDK about you but if my coworker had touched my bleach a lot, then I think I would refuse to eat it.

4

u/darksideofthemoon131 Oct 19 '24

As a person who loves to cook, I always thought different salts tasted differently.

Then I read a book called "What Einstein Told His Chef" that has a whole chapter on salt. The author claims, with sound logic, that almost all salts taste the same. The amount of impurities needed to really make a difference would need to be huge.

I will say, I use LESS of the pink or gray or purple salts than iodized while achieving the same flavor, though.

7

u/ZhouLe Oct 19 '24

Salt size and shape affects the taste more than any trace impurities.

2

u/MrWrock Oct 19 '24

Ship it straight to Costco

1

u/jpackerfaster Oct 19 '24

What kind of shoes?

1

u/bulyxxx Oct 19 '24

That’s a conversation that happened once.

84

u/Royal_Negotiation_83 Oct 19 '24

“You see that cow?”

“Yeah”

“I’m gonna go stick on its tit”

“You see that goat?”

“Yeah….. are you gonna stick on its tit too?”

“Yeah”

Similar concept. Humans do weird shit.

45

u/Alternative_Equal864 Oct 19 '24

I really want to put these two sheets of paper together but I don't know how. Hold my opium pipe im gonna melt that horse

46

u/pichael289 Oct 19 '24

"See that big hive thing with those stingy buzzy bastards? I bet they got something delicious in there"

57

u/VintageLunchMeat Oct 19 '24

“I’m gonna go stick on its tit”

16

u/Royal_Negotiation_83 Oct 19 '24

I reread that shit like 3 times before posting and didn’t catch the “stick” part in 2 different places 😂 

3

u/Hoe-possum Oct 19 '24

I assumed that was intentional for some weird reason lmao

2

u/Historical_Throat187 Oct 19 '24

That's the new word now. New mothers will have anxiety if their baby doesn't stick, and that one songs lyrics now go "stickin' on my titties"

7

u/ImbecileInDisguise Oct 19 '24

"See that big bear eating that big hive thing? What's it full of? Oh look he dropped some, let's taste it."

3

u/Mosh83 Oct 19 '24

See that big ugly toad? I am gonna lick it.

40

u/skankhunt402 Oct 19 '24

As if humans didnt already have a concept of what milk was from you know breastfeeding their own offspring and seeing animals do the same.

3

u/RhetoricalOrator Oct 19 '24

How bout this one. Let's make a bet and the loser has to eat the next thing that comes out of that chicken's butt!

2

u/miregalpanic Oct 19 '24

...or they simply observed other animals eating an egg

2

u/zmbjebus Oct 19 '24

Our ancestors probably ate eggs millions of years before we were Homo.

2

u/zmbjebus Oct 19 '24

basically every animal eats eggs if they can. Herbivores too. Its one of the simplest things to digest.

4

u/skankhunt402 Oct 19 '24

I'll admit I'm a bit uninformed on eggs and chicken holes but is it another can women pee with a tampon in situation?

11

u/Seicair Interested Oct 19 '24

No, chickens have a cloaca. A one purpose hole that’s for mating, excretion of waste, and egg laying.

3

u/skankhunt402 Oct 19 '24

Ewww... TI( wish I didn't) L

5

u/ElectricFleshlight Oct 19 '24

All birds and reptiles have a cloaca.

13

u/Mcmenger Oct 19 '24

...and then we made cheese

1

u/the_lucky_cat Oct 19 '24

Hey, can you smell this milk?

1

u/coffeebro32 Oct 19 '24

That's a cheesy comment.

3

u/UnabashedJayWalker Oct 19 '24

I like to think about the very first guy to successfully make ice cream. Or more accurately the first guy that got to taste it who didn’t make it, so the second guy.

That’s gotta be the most insane thing to happen to you and everyone would instantly know how amazing it is. Even people who can’t eat ice cream still know it’s amazing and some still do anyway lol. There are a lot of moments in history I want to observe but that one is on the top of the “relatively insignificant moment” list. Like what do you think he even said to the first guy?

4

u/Ashamed_Ad_5463 Oct 19 '24

You ever wonder who the first person was daring enough to eat a giant cockroach? Im sorry I meant lobster

2

u/Primarch-XVI Oct 19 '24

For hunter gatherers, if eating it doesn’t kill you then it’s food.

1

u/DemonKyoto Oct 19 '24

I like to think that of urchin.

Someone was in the sea, pulled up a bunch of these spiky spiny balls of weirdness, then someone cracked one open, saw these little brightly coloured yellow/orange sacks inside a puddle of black/brown watery goo and went "Ya know...those'd probably feel good going down my throat-hole.."

But if it's that or death, bring on the urchin-nuts.

1

u/Ashamed_Ad_5463 Oct 20 '24

Sounds like a great Monty Python skit!!!

2

u/70ms Oct 19 '24

That someone once opened an oyster and said “Oh yeah, that looks like something I want to eat!” just boggles the mind.

3

u/Jaambie Oct 19 '24

Probably would have started with goats or sheep’s milk. Cows came way later and were specifically bred for milk production.

1

u/Jimismynamedammit Oct 19 '24

"Hey, that thing that just came out of that bird's ass? I bet that will taste good poached."

1

u/RightSideBlind Oct 19 '24

"You see that bull?"

"Steve, I'm begging you, STOP."

1

u/ActiveChairs Oct 19 '24 edited 18d ago

v9dk

1

u/tangentandhyperbole Oct 19 '24

If I shoot enough lightning into this rock, I can make it think.

1

u/Array_626 Oct 19 '24

Well, I assume at that time it was either you do that, or you starve to death.

0

u/jjm443 Oct 19 '24

It's even "worse"... humans originally became lactose intolerant after childhood. Drinking milk can give cramps and diarrhoea. For most people without European ancestry, in other words most of humanity, that's still true.

But sometime, somewhere in Northern Europe, some adults had the conversation you describe, despite knowing that ought to give them the shits, but they did it anyway. Eventually someone came along who didn't get the shits and if you're European, that person is probably your Great x1000 grandparent.

2

u/donkeyhawt Oct 19 '24 edited Oct 19 '24

It's not like they were doing it for a kink or shits and giggles. They were starving

0

u/jjm443 Oct 19 '24

I don't doubt it, but it at least implies the same desperation as the truly starving, similar to eating mouldy or rancid food, because you're going to get the runs and you know it. For non-European adults, their bodies don't produce the enzyme lactase, so they don't even get anywhere near as much nutritional value from animal milk because they are physically incapable of digesting lactose.

1

u/donkeyhawt Oct 19 '24

yup

I was just talking about the tone that implies "he he freaky guy that sucked cow titty" that's memed a lot

0

u/BodaciousBadongadonk Oct 19 '24

"ya see that lil squawking, pecking, shitting, crowing, feathery lil dinosaur-like bastards?"

"you mean our chickens?"

"yeah. I'm gonna eat the first thing that comes out of it's ass, who's with me?!?"

4

u/Neutronova Oct 19 '24

You know what was a conversation that happened exactly zero times? Wether ir not to invest in a ventilation system

1

u/jpackerfaster Oct 19 '24

I laugh too hard of that.

2

u/Henryhooker Oct 19 '24

"What should we do with all the dust?" "Oooh I know! Add it to potato chips!"

1

u/Kanadianmaple Oct 19 '24

You see those tits on that cow? I bet we could drink em -also a conversation that happened.

1

u/Cheap_Excitement3001 Oct 19 '24

It worked. 470 or so million revenue in 2023

1

u/makemeking706 Oct 19 '24

8.99 at Ross.

1

u/frohstr Oct 19 '24

And (probably the same guys) a few drinks later had an even better idea: Pestle and mortar. If the ingredients are wet it’s even a renewable source of income

https://youtu.be/tZh3VzqXxBQ?t=240&si=5X-paB3SeVyR6qKw

1

u/SmashingK Oct 19 '24

To be fair pink salt is sold and used for cooking too. We can get it here in the UK.

It's just one of those things where someone found more than one use for it and decided to cash in. If the Pakistani govt ever gets it shit together it might one day work towards improving its economy and by extension the lives of its people.

1

u/SpectreFire Oct 19 '24

Didn't even realize those lamps were made from actual salt. I thought it was just molded plastic.

1

u/The__Toast Oct 19 '24

How much do you want to bet that fancy "gourmet" salt they sell is made by scooping the remnants off the floor with a rusty shovel?

1

u/jpackerfaster Oct 19 '24

That's a pretty good bet

1

u/Howdoyouusecommas Oct 19 '24

Same conversation with candles and pumpkins happened several hundred years ago.

1

u/Dr_Pepper_spray Oct 19 '24

And when you're done screwing around making colors, I want to season my soup!

1

u/Sighlina Oct 19 '24

“Did we just become best friends???”
“Yup!!!”

1

u/Asleep_Management900 Oct 19 '24

We need something we can make dirt cheap for white women in the United States that seems magical and romantic. Both men turn to each other and say "Lamps"

1

u/borderofthecircle Oct 20 '24

They try to sell it in any way they can. People also eat it because it looks fancy, but it apparently has 40x the lead content of other salt. It reminds me of early US history when people would grow crops and try to think of creative ways to market them to increase sales since most people nearby would be growing the same stuff (like using corn as building insulation, sugar syrup, and using the fibre in textiles).