Lifestyle

TOPICS:

10/2/03
10/2/03

Previous

PAGE: 

1 ... 

726 | 727 | 728

 ... 944

Next

Keith

Keith

Oklahoma City, OK
August 2002

OCT 01, 2003 07:32 PM

The hundred-and-two-year-old lightbulb.
surreal

Age: 100 years and counting (as of 2001)

Installed: First installed at the fire department hose cart house in 1901. Then moved to fire station at First and McLeod, then to its present site in 1976 at the fire station, 4550 East Ave., Livermore, California

Proof of Longevity: From local newspaper records; also GE engineers researched it. Was donated to the Fire Department in 1901 by Dennis Bernal who owned the Livermore Power and Light Co.

Vital Statistics: Made by the Shelby Electric Company, a handblown bulb with carbon filament. Approximate wattage-4 watts. Left burning continuously in firehouse as a nightlight over the fire trucks.

Recognition: Declared the oldest known working lightbulb by Guinness Book of World Records. Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not in 1972 researched it and declared it the oldest. Charles Kurault of the TV program "On the Road with Charles Kurault" visited the bulb in the 1970s and included it in his book as well.

Closest Competitors: A bulb in a New York City hardware store had been working since 1912, but it is unknown if it still works today. Another bulb in a washroom at the Martin & Newby Electrical Shop in Ipswich, England was dated from 1930 and burned out in January 2001.

TheHaunted

TheHaunted

Virginia Beach, VA
September 2003

OCT 01, 2003 07:37 PM

They need to sell those things. I have a lightbulb curse, and at least one blows out in my house like every other week. mad
-J

Olivia

Olivia

STAFF

Oakland, CA

OCT 01, 2003 07:42 PM

oh man. i thought this was going to be about my cam, considering all i do is stare at my computer.

Corvus_PDX

Corvus_PDX

Portland, OR
December 2002

OCT 01, 2003 07:45 PM

illuminating

Ophelia

Ophelia

SUICIDEGIRL

Illinois, USA

OCT 01, 2003 07:52 PM

Olivia said:
oh man. i thought this was going to be about my cam, considering all i do is stare at my computer.



You stare at your computer and look hot.
The hotness makes your cam unboring.
Yep.

dasbbq

dasbbq

Rockville, MD
July 2002

OCT 01, 2003 08:11 PM

Well that makes the pitch drop experiment seem like the Indy 500.

[Edited on Oct 01, 2003 by carbauja]

richiedagger

richiedagger

I'm lost
July 2003

OCT 01, 2003 08:16 PM

i just wasted ten minutes of my life staring at that thing. it sucked me in like an infomercial, i was bored out of my mind but i couldnt stop watching.

MirkwoodMaiden

MirkwoodMaiden

Richmond, VA
October 2002

OCT 01, 2003 08:57 PM

Olivia said:
oh man. i thought this was going to be about my cam, considering all i do is stare at my computer.



but thats pretty much what everyone does. but ophilea has a very good point. biggrin

adjunct

adjunct

Philadelphia, PA
July 2002

OCT 02, 2003 09:28 AM

I thought this was going to be about the first webcam, the coffeepot-cam at Cambridge. Though, I guess since the coffee pot was sometimes full and sometimes empty, it was more exciting than the lightbulb. Maybe somebody will write XLightbulb so we don't need www access to see it?

RIP coffee cam.

EvanX

EvanX

Grand Rapids, MI
June 2003

OCT 02, 2003 11:55 AM

How very odd...

Zarina

Zarina

SUICIDEGIRL

I'm lost

OCT 04, 2003 01:58 AM

Olivia said:
oh man. i thought this was going to be about my cam, considering all i do is stare at my computer.



I was thinking the same thing but it being about mine