Inside a pleasingly scary Russian 240V gas igniter. 

"Firestarter" - definitely qualifies as truth in advertising

It's a nail... and a ball point pen spring... and I wouldn't be terribly surprised the plastic core was also part of a pen.

"I'm not really sure what the borderline is between Russia and the Ukraine". I suspect a chap called Putin has the same problem.

My parents still using almost the same one, they bought it from Moscow back in 1989. Running perfectly on 220v till this day. Great Soviet industry.

7:47 . . . Clive: *"It's a NAIL !!"* Leave it to Russians / Ukrainians for ingenious improvisations.

"I'm guessing this jams everything that broadcasts in radio frequencies for miles around." A spark gap transmitter indeed!

Impressively dodgy, simple and clever all at once. The electrode water heater still wins, but this one is a contender for second place. And bonus points for the nail. :)

I'm absolutely certain that this device meets all UK EMF standards.

My parents had one of these about 20 years ago, when I was a kid. Now that I think about it, it's a miracle nobody got electrocuted and the house did not burn down.

I think the designer nailed it.

It's a relay whole solenoid breaks its own connection, they're using undesirable relay arcing to their advantage. Neat.

A tazer disguised as a "lighter". Genius.

I remember them from the earliest 80ies in Poland, almost the same design. They were extremely common, hanging near every gas stove. They have been also very reliable. My grandma had one for decades. But of course they are not made to be pushed hard, just a touch to ignite the stove.

This seems like a shittier version of the "old ones". My grandma had one, and it had much beefier coil, with the added bonus of jamming every nearby wireless connection. The "original" was bigger had a round tip(also live at mains voltage) and (don't quote me on that) case made out of bakelite.

My grandma in Czech has a similar thingy but instead of a button it's got the rod freely in a case. So when you plug it in, nothing happens until you turn the tip downward. The rod falls down the shaft and makes a contract, produces a spark and that fires it back up the shaft again for it to fall back down I a split second. That makes it run much cooler overall, because the sparks are slowed down by the movement of the rod. It makes a very pleasant sound, actually.

Sweet, mini EMP generator

The text was in Russian, it says "alcohol meter". One easy way to understand is it Ukrainian or Russian is when you see letter "i" used, it is Ukrainian. Russian alphabet doesn't have letter "i". Of course, you won't see this letter in every word, but if you see one, you will know for sure.

I LOL'd at the nail. You know... People in the West complain about all of the safety regulations that we have, but a device like this makes you appreciate them a bit more.

We don't mind when you show us items that have nothing to do with the video, or at least for me.

“Pleasingly Scary” is something you’ll only hear from bigclive.

220v gas stove lighter. Sold here in Romania up until 92. Then the ones that look like a cigarette lighter came out and then the stoves equipped with the piezoelectric ignition from the manufacturer. The 220 volts ones, half ass decent, but play with it for more than 15 seconds at a time and they would kick the bucket.

*somewhere in soviet era bunker* -Alright Ivan, we need to make a fire, but all we have is pile of garbage -Let's unscrew pen, drive the nail through that spring and connect it to the piece of metal -Гениально, сука блять!

can confirm, my grandmother has one like this. It jams everything from FM radio to digital television

I’ve drunk 80% moonshine in Rural Ukraine. Not proof, actually 80%! It’s very very popular over there and actually a currency in a way.

Its a dual contact switch at least, if the chinese made it I'm sure they would get the BOM cost down and leave it live all the time.

The 'B' is a Cyrillic 'V'. Thanks Clive. Nice combination of Deathdapter with Lighter Sabre!

Here in Argentina those things were called "chisperos", with the same functioning principle and the same plug style. This Ukrainian example has an improvement wit respect of our local version; it has a two pole pulse switch, so none of the exposed electrodes are live when the device is unused. Ours had not that "safety" feature ;-((( These were common here until mid 70's with the advent of the piezoelectric igniter popularised under the brand "Magiclick Aurora" (then any piezo chispero was called Magiclick). By the side of the two lugs non-polarised plugs, those were banned by 1998 as they were replaced by a three pins polarised plug of the same style of the australians.

We used to have a similar one at home when I was a kid. Later I realized it must've been incredibly dodgy, because countless times, we've tripped the circuit breaker when the metal part of the casing touched the stove as you were lighting it, so the metal casing was likely connected directly to the live wire when the spark was happening. Thankfully no-one ever got hurt. And yes, it did affect the TV and the radio.

Not a Chinese seller, a genuine Ukrainian seller. Looks like a Soviet unified item, like those that were standardised by the state and produced at multiple facilities throughout the country, with just minor updates - removal of price moulded into the plastic, which was mandatory up until late 80ies, newer style cord and plug. The "B" in 220B is a rather solid indication that it's Soviet/Russian/Ukrainian made. Don't think they made these past early 90ies though.

It's a proper Russian Mains Vibrator! (It would likely also work with DC)

it's not 220B - english B is russian V - it's 220V :)

A door bell "buzzer" igniter. Now lets get back to the short bread cookies. Love those cookies.

In Russia, there is a measure "Degrees Alcohol", from 0 to 100, and it is the same as volume percentage of alcohol.

What was also a common practice in USSR was to tie two knives together with rubber bands and attach a mains cord to each side forming a makeshift water heater😛

Deadly consumer gadgets FTW. (I know, nobody says "FTW" any more.) I guess a simple piezoelectric clicker would be too wimpy to light that tough, he-man Ukrainian gas.

The Russians could successfully launch a man into space with nothing but a couple popsicle sticks, aluminum foil, and chewing gum found on the bottom of someone's shoe.

That may be one of the most terrifying electrical items I have witnessed but I love that they used a freaking nail to make it work!

New Signalex duel USB 2.1 Amp wall charger available at poundland.. at £2 mind.. Available colours are red, blue, green.. possibly more. I only say as an older chap (late 60's) said "I ain't buying one of them till big Clive's took one to bits" see you're famous.

My parents had this 20-30 years ago. Was doing great and there was never an issue with it :P

From the switch pivot doubling as the securing mechanism, to the off-the-shelf nail being an integral component; the finest of Mother Russia's economical engineering!

I remember using one of these all the time in the early 90s (my grandma had it in kitchen)- it was a really fun toy! Who would have thought that these things were so dangerous? And damn, my childhood was hardcore!

*Спиртомер* = "Spirtomer" _Literal: Spirit meter_ _Google: Alcoholiser_ _Actual: Spirit hydrometer_ Russian and Ukranian never translate too well!

I am actually Russian. The glass thing is a spirit meter, it is very common and is quite precise. It is sold almost everywhere and costs almost nothing. The other thing (stove igniter) is made in Ukraine and is designed to run on 220V, but it is a death trap.

Ha! Marvellous analysis and a tempting piece of made-in-the-shed kit!

4:50 Well actually B is V in the cyrillic alphabet.

Or you could light your gas with matches. You can still burn down the house with them, but they won't give you an electric shock.

Just spending a pleasant evening working my way through your really interesting vids. That's a heck of a gadget your reviewing. Thanks for your fabulous entertainment.

Seeing Clive try to activate this thing while it was in bits on the workbench was one of the biggest NOPE moments I've seen on this channel and I'm just devastated that nothing happened.

a gas-culator. when shocking times are needed

Had some shortbread over xmas......was made in Scotland (obviously!), bought in and posted from Detroit and eaten in Donegal. Think it was well travelled :D

These were very popular in Poland as well, in 80s and mid-90s. Surprisingly reliable and even children could use them easily.

LMAO. It's a nail !! It's a friggin Nail!! love it. Your videos are awesome Clive. Thanks for the giggles every day.

i remember having one just like that to light up my oven :P

The hydrometer won’t be perfect. You generally need to tare it with the original liquid because sugar and such can push it up as well as atmospheric pressure can change the depth it floats at. When you brew beer. You hydrometer a value after you create the wort. Then you hydrometer it later and subtract the two numbers and then you have percentage of alcohol.

those lighters were indestructible back in the days they normaly operated on 220v for years and never stoped to work :)

I'm from Poland and I used similar device before advent of built-in ignition on the cooking ranges that didn't stop to work after spilling one drop of water (I think it was around early 2000s when that technological breakthrough happened). Model I used was from early 60s and never stopped working (I lost it somewhere 10 years ago) and I never heard of anyone doing anything nasty with them - holes were small enough that even a little child couldn't make it to touch anything at live potential. And it worked awesome, much better than burning yourself with matches or lighter that always breaks when you try to cook something ;) Now let me go back to not fixing that crappy 125A three phase socket in the workshop that requires isolating rod to operate (if you don't hold it still during insertion/removal it's a trip to main circuit breaker on the property) because some famous German manufacturer made it from same plastic as cheap children toys...

That... thing is delightful. In the worst way.

You need to have Boris from LifeOfBoris send you iffy gopnik products.

I have a similar one, bought by my grandfather back in 60s.. cool to know how it actually still works to this date

I don't know anything about voltage and things you buy on eBay but your videos are rather interesting

I see Cody’s Lab is down again

Definitely a Ukrainian thing. My wife’s grandma has one hanging near her cooker. Scared the life out of me when she used it.

I really love your videos. Found by random but really enjoying what I have watched so far. The UK shower dismantle was very interesting. I fitted a new one recently and the mains cable to it was only 3 core cable. (old bungalow). Upgraded to code cable and new trip switches as was still on the wire fuses that you had to replace. The switch had also melted and when it was all new. Very nice. Your videos are like Billy connelly talking about electrics lol.

Thanks for sharing 😀👍... Bin in Leningrad, and saw the mains contact. A big klonky switch. It did its job, but what a big switch..

Am I the only person that ‘likes’ Clive’s videos even before I watch them, just to get it out of the way? 👍

"Pleasingly scary" ..mind if I steal that for my tinder profile?

You really nailed this video

That is absolutely terrifying. It's amazing that got through customs.

this is like AvE's "BOLTR" but with a nicer narrator :)

Why would you use a device with a plug? Just not handy. When I was a child we had a more or less similar looking unit without a power lead and a plug. It was sort of a piezo ignitor. By pushing the trigger down into the body it made several sparks. Not as heavy as the powered one you have here but for igniting the gas stove it worked fine. Much safer and easier to use because you never have to fight with the powerlead

A fricken nail!!! LMAO I love it when you find hilariously unexpected parts being used inside. Reminds me of the explosive disconnect teardown that used a .22 cartridge.

OMG! we had these when I was a kid! been so long that I forgot these things exist! so nostalgic...

127-220 🅱

It shows that you are not an educated drinker :) nor a heavy one. It's not called a hydrometer (an instrument for measuring the density of liquids) altough it is one but it's calibrated for one purpose only. To measure the ethylic concentration of the distilled water solution. That's why it's called a spirtomer/alcoholometer. As for the igniter... My family owned 3 of them (my parents and my grandparents)... The first two were bought from Moldavia (back then part of USSR) and lasted at least 20 years (one maybe almost 25) even if we had 220V in Romania and they (oh, those Russians) had only 127B. They didn't changhed the design too much (shorter cord, cheaper plastic, injected plug, nail instead of a proper metal rod) but like all things made with only the cost on mind the third/last one had a short life. Of course, when the first one went dead (ours) I took it apart... In cyrillic alphabet B is V... A joke says that the American space programme spent millions inventing/designing the ball pen... instead, the Russians used chemical pencil/indelible ink pencil ;)

I recognized the pen spring instantly, and when the pointy end of the nail was revealed, I had a good chuckle. :D

Nice to see you made sure you were wearing a shirt that matched the shortbread tin.

Sadly but it is 99.9% chance this lighter is made in China. I dont think any sort of industrial manufacturing is still profitable in Ukraine. Цікаво, чи дивиться Клайва ще хтось з Матері городів русських?

"It's a freaking nail! Just a nail and a spring" - this is where I figured out what foreigners mean when they say "We'll just Russian it out" (basically "improvise with shit and sticks and whatever is at hand"). Thumbs up from someone who used this when he was a kid.

I have vague memories of this device being in use at my grandmother's place, I believe they've been using it to light the gas stove in the kitchen since 1970s or even earlier. And yes, I believe someone in my family got a healthy zap out of it since there was some accident involving this "device" after which they just got a stove with automatic ignition.

Beautifully minimal design : ) when I saw the nail I almost died haha

Hey, my family have had one of those in the 90s. It worked quite well actually, at least better than a piezoelectric cordless one. The most felt downside was not the chintzyness or radio/tv interference but the fact it occupied one of the only three outlets in the kitchen. It's actually a cool class of historic russian mechanic/electric things from the 80s and 90s that can probably interest you -- that was produced by defense contractors in an attempt to diversify and conquer the emerging consumer market prior to and after the fall of Soviet Union. I think (though don't quote me on that that this one belongs to said class).

Gotta love that 70's plastic :P

Love their ingenuity

I love the simplicity

A nail & a spring from a ball-point pen? Heath Robinson would be proud!

oh i love somebody trying to understand stuff you grew up with, including gas lighters (although no gas in my home) and cyrillic

amazing! love the nail.

I miss video's of when you took apart our devices to see how they worked LoL but no really I love these kind of videos 😍

Love these vids. I'd love to see a rundown of some ebay led controllers. Or something that draws a nice arc ;)

OMG, haven't seen one of those in ages. Had couple of that in the 90's.

I remember one of those ozone generators hung next to my aunt's gas stove in the 1960s. Looked old too. She changed to a piezo lighter in the late 1980s when the 'moving contact' wore out.

I purchased some needles and made sure some very large needles are included. They are handy for poking into reset holes and pushing out pivot pins, nearly as useful as a Spudger tool.

Some 45 years ago I ha a gas-lighter almost identical to yours (without the adjustable knob). It used a quite standard nail as plunger. After years the bended strip was electro-cut away due to the tears of sparking, so i replaced it with a piezoelectric igniter.

More Clive awesomeness!! Oh yes..

When i was younger I've seen allot of this devices used in my country, some of them give very fierce sparks and shakes.

"pleasingly scary" That's why I like this channel.

We used to have a good few of these lighters when I was young. We also had those alcohol meters. I've now brought one to the UK just to check on the home brew, though ours only go up to 60%

You damn well know that disclaimer in the description is rather motivating.

When i worked in a Sottish & Newcastle Pub in the'70's the auditors used to come round about every 2 months to check our spirits 'proof' with hydrometers just to make sure we were not diluting. Also they used dip sticks to check the amount of booze in a bottle and cross referred that to the amount of the booze sold.

We have a similar igniter from Soviet times, but it has a lot more sturdier construction and without nails. We used it a long time, but discarded it not long ago because of the loud noises it produces, that inconvenient and even scare people sometimes. I generally surprised, that someone still produces them.