They sure don’t make ’em like they used to.
The North Fort Worth Historical Society in Texas has arranged a birthday party today for a light bulb that has burned continuously since September 21, 1908. The bulb was first illuminated when a stagehand at a local opera house flicked a switch and posted a sign that the light over a stage entrance was not to be turned off. That was 96 years ago.
The administrator of the museum where the bulb burns, complete with its own independent power supply, says they have no idea why it has lasted so long.
The bulb is about 40 watts and is made of thick glass housing a sturdy carbon filament.
Despite having lasted 96 years so far, the Texas light bulb doesn’t hold the record for the longest continuously burning bulb in the world.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, that honour goes to a four watt bulb that has been burning at a firehouse in Livermore, California, since it was turned on in 1901.
I think that both those bulbs were designed with kids in mind. I know that our kids seem to think that light bulbs were designed to never be turned off.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
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