Lightbulb that's burned for 107 years

A lightbulb in a firehouse in Livermore, CA, has been burning continuously since 1901.

In 1901, when the tiny bulb was first screwed into place inside a so-called hose cart house, it cast its light on a simpler era.
Back then, horse-pulled carts carried water to fires. The bulb burned day and night, hanging at eye level from a 20-foot cord. Its job: to break the darkness so firefighters responding to calls wouldn't have to fumble to light the wicks of their kerosene lanterns. Manufactured by the Shelby Electric Co. of Shelby, Ohio, the bulb soon outlived its maker, which closed in 1914.
Later, in the main firehouse, it illuminated more modern rigs as horses were replaced by gas-fed engines.
It didn't always receive kid-glove treatment.
Climbing atop their engines, firefighters returning from World War II and Korea often would give the bulb a playful swat for good luck. The next generation -- the Vietnam veterans and the younger kids -- used it as a target for Nerf basketball practice.
Then, in 1972, a local reporter checked records and interviewed old-timers to trace its history. Firefighters suddenly realized they had a treasure.
"The good-luck slaps and target practice stopped," Bramell recalls. "We figured, 'Wow, maybe we should take care of this bulb.' "

Link

(Image: Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)

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Takuan

$20(retail) for 2 1/2 years
http://www.aerolights.com/longlasting.asp
Antinous

It’s easy to see why the Shelby Electric Company went out of business.
Robotech_Master

And just think, when they outlaw incandescent bulbs in favor of fluorescents, it’ll have to go.
bwcbwc

This story seems to crop up every year or two. Must be the anniversary date or something. http://www.firehouse.com/news/2001/6/11_bulb.html

There’s an 80 year bulb in Oklahoma, too. http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/02/20/81-year-old_light_bulb_going_strong/8286/

Must be something about Firehouses.
Shane

Forgive me, but isn’t it a fact that light bulbs can very easily be made to burn “eternally” (or is it urban myth that some of Edison’s original bulbs still work?) but obviously, its in the interest of the manufacturers to have you need a new bulb every X months.

I also remember, as a kid, someone selling “forever” bulbs door-to-door.

I know, I know, easy enough to check via the googlemobile, but I’m feeling lazy.
Naikrovek

a modern lightbulb, when fed 5W of power rather than 100, will last decades too. Probably centuries. Bulbs lit in such a manner typically aren’t very useful, though. When that filament glows, it decays. When the temperature of the filament changes, it is weakened. Both effects can be minimized by giving it just enough juice to glow and turning it off as little as possible.

You too can have a century old working light bulb, if you take care of it.
Zaidan

I found a link to the Shelby electric co museum and they claim to have at least one other bulb that has been burning for that long…

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohscogs/shelbymuseum/ShelbyMuseum3.html
sebFlyte

I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one to think of Byron.

I’m sure The Company is keeping a very close eye on it.
geneb5

Pynchon’s Byron the Bulb, nursing some 100-year-grudge, feverishly dreamed of organizing all the lightbulbs in the world to explode at once in a single blinding flash of light-bulb REVOLUTION!
robcat2075

A reporter checked “records” … on a light bulb?

Old timers had stories about … a light bulb?

Those two oddities make me doubtful.
Haroun

When I was a kid my Dad took me & my brother to the Edison Tower in Edison NJ to look at the exhibits there & they supposedly had a light from Edison’s time, possibly even made by Edison’s lab. The explanation was that they kept it at very low voltage, just enough to glow, & it would last much longer that way.
The records referred to could easily exist, as the time the fire house was wired & the light installed would be a big deal mentioned in the logs & in the newspapers.
I like how they used it to find matches to light the kerosene lanterns.
Frank_in_Virginia

In a great stab at irony, he should be ‘told’ to change it out for a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb. After all they have a much longer lifespan.
Jake0748

#9 Alistair – Well if the reason this bulb burned so long is “It’s simply a thick filament that is incandescent at a really low temperature”. And they are no longer constructed this way, then I’ll stick by my original statement that they sure don’t make them like they used to.

Thank you, drive through.
KurtMac

This was featured on a MythBusters episode: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=180639728096740394

Forward to the 6:15 mark to see when Kari, Grant and Tory take a field-trip to the Livermore Fire Station to see the bulb. The Myth they were trying to bust was whether or not you save any energy by turning off your lights rather than just leaving them on all the time.
erx

It’s like #9 said, there’s a tradeoff between filament temperature and bulb life. A filament is a black body, meaning that it emits higher and higher energy photons as it gets hotter. Low temperature filaments emit most of their photons as invisible infrared, while higher temperature filaments emit more photons in the visible range. However, those bulbs don’t last as long. Modern bulbs represent a tradeoff between efficiency and bulb life. So it’s not really that big of an achievement to make a really inefficient bulb that lasts a really long time.
Halogen bulbs are better because there’s a temperature-dependent chemical reaction inside the bulb that redistributes the metal atoms to the thin parts of the filament, allowing the bulbs to burn at higher temperatures and thus higher efficiencies. However, they require a UV shield because they’re hot enough to emit UV photons which are higher energy than visible ones.
Frank_in_Virginia

An observation. In Home Depot they sell “Longer Life Incandescent Bulbs” in 24 and 36 packs. Do they think we are going to live forever?
Takuan

I see the seed of a new religion here…
Avram

I wonder how much it cost back in 1901. I imagine that, adjusted for inflation, it might well have cost more than a modern compact fluorescent.
FoetusNail

I remember a similar looking bulb in my grandmother’s carriage house/garage that had supposedly been burning for fifty years or so. I don’t think there was a switch for the bulb because it was always on. A wire with a socket had been strung from the house to the garage uninterrupted. The house had a high step off into the driveway for getting in and out of carriages. This was in the sixties and that place was a kids dream, with a haunted rat cellar, hidden stairways, and a huge attic. Lots of dark wood and stone, very Addams Family.
oldmanfury

As a former Livermoron who marveled at the bulb 30 years ago, I’m happy to see it’s still burnin bright (or at least sort of dim).
Takuan

I love the look of the bulb. You can get modern revival specimens if you wish, but of course they will not last as long….now why do I flash on Gyro Gearloose?
C-DUB

I love my heart, but I love my Livermore! Another Livermoron who is glad the bulb still glows. It has a lovely steampunk look about it and I’m glad it’s in my hometown!
bjacques

Well, ever since Phoebus started outsourcing, the new watchers just don’t seem to, well, *care* about finding Byron. No professional pride. Blame it on globalization.

Dang kids. What’re you looking at? And get the hell off my lawn!
anthropomorphictoast

Actually, considering that turning a bulb off and on a lot reduces the lifespan of a filliment, it would make sense that this thing has lasted so damn long. Of course, the whippersnapper new bulbs probably wouldn’t last this long (LEDs excluded.) :P
Jake0748

#20 FoetusNail – I have similar memories of places like that. I grew up in the late 50s – early 60s and many of my friends, relatives, etc. had haunted cellars, hidden stairways, mysterious attics and even ever-glowing spooky light bulbs.

I feel sorry for kids nowadays.
reviewstew

Reminds me of that great story about “Benny the Bulb” in the middle of Pynchon’s _Gravity’s Rainbow_.
reviewstew

make that “Byron the Bulb,” now that I check up on it…
Takuan

apparently there’s been a fair bit of LYING about LED long life.
Jake0748

They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to.
Jamie Sue

A modern age eternal flame.
manicbassman

don’t believe it… they left it switched on while the wiring for the firehouse was renewed as it surely must have done during that 107 years… and what about power cuts and other interruptions to the supply?
Patrick Dodds

I don’t know that it has burned continuously for all that time Manic.
Compare, of course, with our “modern” bulbs, stuffed with mercury and requiring a college degree to dispose of safely. Ah how times they are improving.
Chinese Jet Pilot

This post makes me feel old — it was a viral link about three years ago.

Here’s the webcam link: http://www.bunnweb.org/centennialbulb/index.htm
Narual

Reminds me of the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Michigan. I remember going there on a school trip, and a lot of the light bulbs were originals.. including some of the first ones edison made. They rebuilt Menlo Park there.

http://www.hfmgv.org/
Antiglobalism

What if we could make more of these instead of selling crap?
Alistair

It is really cool that this bulb has managed to last as long as it has. It has been turned off (and has moved locations a few times), but that doesn’t take anything away from it’s achievement. However, there is really nothing miraculous about this bulb, and it certainly does not prove that “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”. It’s simply a thick filament that is incandescent at a really low temperature. Carbon filament lamps of that era output about 3.5 lumens per watt and lasted about 1,000 hours. This particular lamp has lasted about 950 times as long, so it’s efficacy is much, much lower. It’s effectively a 4 watt heater that’s lasted a century that gives off a slight glow as a side effect.
Antinous

They’d market it as a LifeBulbÂ® and sell it for $300.