"Centennial Bulb" still burning after 107 years
Wed May 14, 2008 10:44AM EDT
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Hanging about 18 feet high in the engine bay of a Livermore, California firehouse, a humble, low-watt light bulb has been burning almost continuously since 1901. Take that, halogen!
The Los Angeles Times (via Boing Boing) recently ran a story on the remarkably resilient Centennial Bulb—a four-watt, curlicue carbon-filament lightbulb that, give or take a few brief interludes, has been burning for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for more than a century.
The bulb has become something of a lucky charm for Livermore firefighters, who (according to the LA Times story) won't even dust off the bulb for fear of damaging it.
Indeed, when the department moved to a new fire station in 1976, firefighters decided to cut the power cord rather than unscrew the fragile bulb from its socket. A motorcade of fire trucks then accompanied the Centennial Bulb (which, according to Wikipedia, was only off for about 10 minutes during the short journey) to its new home, where it's been burning continuously ever since.
What's the secret to the Centennial Bulb's longevity? As the LA Times story notes, there are many theories. One former firefighter thinks it's because the bulb, made by the long-defunct Shelby Electric Co., shines in a cool-burning vacuum thanks to a perfect seal. Others chalk it up to the fact that the bulb has almost never been turned off.
In any case, the Centennial Bulb has been drawing curiosity-seekers and news stories (including, of course, this one) since 1972, and the bulb even has its own Web site—which, unfortunately, appears to be down for now (probably due to a burst of traffic).
Check out the LA Times Web site for the full story, including many more details on the bulb's storied history.
So, any theories on why the Centennial Bulb has been burning for so long?
Related:
At 107, Livermore centennial lightbulb is still a real live wire [Los Angeles Times]
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2 Posted by nerd160 on Wed May 14, 2008 3:01PM EDT Report Abuse
I think the reason it is burning so long is because the filament (sp) is so thick. Seriously, that thing is huge!
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3 Posted by middlenamefrank on Wed May 14, 2008 3:17PM EDT Report Abuse
Incandescent bulbs are very simple devices: an electrical current causes the filament to rise to the temperature where it emits blackbody radiation (i.e. it gets "white-hot"). What causes a bulb to burn out is also pretty simple: the heat causes ions to fly off of the filament, eventually causing a thin spot which opens up electrically and stops the flow of electricity. However, those ions do eventually cool down and re-deposit themselves somewhere, which is why the glass on a burned-out bulb tends to have dark spots -- many of the tungsten ions coming off of the bulb have deposited themselves on the inside of the bulb. First of all, this bulb is very low power -- four watts is less than most christmas tree bulbs. The filament is also a dull orange color in the picture, which would indicate that it operates at a very low temperature (barely "red-hot" rather than "white-hot") compared to modern bulbs. That would probably mean that the filament throws off far fewer ions, which does seem to be the case since the glass seems to still be very clear. It's also possible that ions coming off of the carbon filament (which is what they used way back when) are not 'attracted' to glass, so their only alternative is to re-attach themselves to the filament. (Halogen bulbs use halogen gases to achieve the same effect, so they can run the filaments brighter by running them hotter.) So my guess would be that the old technology used in such an old bulb is what's keeping it going. They used very thick carbon fibers (which can lose lots of ions and maintain its integrity) instead of very thin tungsten wires for the filament, and ran them at VERY low temperatures compared to modern bulbs. Of course the bulb has maintained a very good vacuum seal all these years; that in itself is impressive. I guess in light bulbs they really don't make them like they used to!
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4 Posted by chester.green@sbcglobal.net on Fri May 16, 2008 9:57PM EDT Report Abuse
In 1976 I found a bulb like that at a garage sale. Its been in a drawer ever since. I checked it to see if it still works about a year ago and it did. It has the curlie filament and the bulb has a scrached up look to it even back then. I wonder how old it is. Maybe way back to the days of Rome. Oh, wait...... nevrmind.:)
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5 Posted by staceyfarm@sbcglobal.net on Fri May 16, 2008 9:58PM EDT Report Abuse
And you don't need a HazMat team to clean it up after it breaks...and with the technology we have we cant make a 'safe' bulb that last more then 2 years.
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1 Posted by jonjon19752001 on Wed May 14, 2008 2:51PM EDT Report Abuse
Amazing!! It did survived also from all those earthquakes that hit California for the past 100 years.