Everything Old Is New Again. That’s a redneck implementation of the old Deck Prism used on sailing ships to let light into the holds of the ships. A good friend had some & when he died we were working on putting them inverted in nice boxes with LEDs inside, to make Night Lights…
As to the original idea, what better place is there for a Joule Thief
This is just the sort of thing I came here for!
Dim