Edison's oldest incandescent lamp that never stops burning is 116 years old!

Amazingly, it was turned on back in 1901, when the first airplane in history had not yet taken off, and since then it has never stopped working. This uniquely American landmark has been located in the fire station of the Californian city of Livermore for more than a century.

She, as you might guess, is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. This happened in 1972, shortly after local reporter Mike Dunstan learned from station employees about the unusual longevity of the old lamp.

The “centennial bulb,” as it is commonly called in the United States, even has its own official website (centennialbulb.org), at home page where you can watch an online broadcast of an amazing light source. A webcam installed specifically for this purpose transmits a photo of the light bulb to the Internet every few minutes. Every day, hundreds of curious people visit this resource in the hope of seeing that the “hundred-year-old lamp” has finally gone out (why do they need this?), but this has not happened yet.

The webcam was installed here in 2010, and since then it has broken down twice, but the amazing lamp is timeless.

The miracle device was made by hand in the 1890s by the American Shelby Electric Company. The glass for the 60-watt light bulb was blown in the traditional way. Its carbon filament, which is 8 times thicker than the spirals of modern lamps of this type, was created using the technology of Thomas Edison, but under the auspices of Adolphe Chaillet, Edison's direct competitor.

The secret of the longevity of the “hundred-year lamp”

The old woman’s unusually high resource is explained by the fact that in those days manufacturers worked conscientiously and created durable lamps, that is, they strived for this without yet focusing on the sophisticated and deceptive needs of the market.

It's no secret that today industrialists practice the so-called, that is, they produce any products, including light bulbs, with a deliberately short service life, so that they quickly fail, and buyers run to stores for a replacement. By the way, it was incandescent light bulbs that became the first product that was deliberately made to be of insufficient quality for long-term use. For this purpose, at one time, manufacturers of incandescent lamps even gathered at an international consultation, where they agreed to reduce the service life of Edison’s lamp to a certain number of hours (compared to the previous short period). And only the USSR at that time did not participate in this deal of the century, which is why Ilyich’s light bulb was practically unburnable for a long time (the older generation born in the USSR still remembers this well).

The secret of the longevity of the “hundred-year lamp” also lies in the fact that it is never extinguished, that is, there are simply no off-on cycles. Namely, they are known to most often lead to burnout of incandescent light bulbs.

And finally, although the lamp in Livermore initially operated with a specified power of 60 watts, today this figure is only 4 watts, which, you see, is extremely low for effective lighting, but is economical in terms of the longevity of the lighting device.

In 2001, firefighters solemnly celebrated the centenary of “America’s little pride.” At the same time, a kind of “hundred-year light bulb committee” was created, dealing with the issue of preserving its functionality for as long as possible - at any cost. It would be better, of course, if manufacturers of modern light bulbs also cared about the durability of their products...

In the United States, the average incandescent light bulb (that is, one that is heated by a wire filament) has a lifespan of about 1,000 to 2,000 hours. The lifespan of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, which are now increasingly replacing incandescent lamps, is said to be between 25,000 and 50,000 hours - this is simply an incredible difference.

But the lamp hanging from the ceiling of a California firehouse burned for 989,000 hours - almost 113 years. Since its installation in 1901, it has rarely been turned off, and has managed to outlive the many fire service personnel who have worked there for an entire era. For this, experts from General Electric and physicists around the world nicknamed it “eternal light.”

Tracing the history of this light bulb, known as the Centennial Light, has scientists wondering whether it is one of the wonders of physics or a sign that modern light bulbs are much weaker than their predecessors. The longevity of her work is still a mystery.

Short story light bulbs

Although it is generally accepted that Thomas Edison “invented” the first light bulb in 1879, it was preceded by the experiments of many other inventors.

In 1802, British chemist Humphry Davy created an incandescent lamp by transmitting current through thin strips of platinum. Over the next 75 years, his experiments served as the basis for many developments aimed at creating long-lasting, brightly glowing lamps based on heated incandescent filaments. Scottish inventor James Bowman Lindsay boasted of his new light bulb in 1835, allowing him to “read a book at a distance of one and a half meters,” but soon abandoned his efforts to concentrate on wireless telegraphy. Five years later, a group of British scientists experimented with platinum filaments inside a vacuum tube. Although the high price of platinum made their device unaffordable and difficult to produce on a large scale, the design was the basis for the first incandescent lamp patent, granted in 1841.

American inventor John W. Starr, thanks to his introduction of carbon filaments in 1845, may have been credited with inventing the first electric light bulb, but he died of tuberculosis the following year after its discovery, and his colleagues were unable to continue his work without his knowledge. and experience. A few years later, British physicist Joseph Swan used Starr's achievement to produce the first work lamp, and in 1878 became the first person in the world to decorate his home with incandescent light bulbs.

Meanwhile, in America, Thomas Edison was working on improving carbon filaments. By 1880, through the use of higher vacuum and the development of a fully integrated electric lighting system, he improved the life of his light bulb to 1,200 hours and began producing his invention at a rate of 130,000 light bulbs per year.

In the midst of this innovation, a man was born who managed to create the longest-lasting light bulb in the world.

The Shelby Electric Company

Adolphe Chaillet was born to create the most unique light bulb. Born in 1867, Chaillet was constantly influenced by the growing lamp industry in Paris, France. At the age of 11, he decided to earn his own money, so he began to accompany his father, a Swedish immigrant and owner of a small incandescent lamp company. He learned quickly, showing interest in physics, and completed his studies at two academies of sciences - German and French. In 1896, after spending some time designing incandescent filaments for a large German power company, Schaie moved to the United States.

Schaie worked for General Electric for some time, but then, thanks to his reputation as a brilliant electrician, he managed to get $100,000 (equivalent to $2,750,000 in 2014) from investors and opened his own lamp factory, Shelby Electric Company. While his achievements in incandescent technology were well known, Chaiet also wanted to prove to the American public that his lamps were the brightest and most durable of any existing equivalent.

Taking a risky maneuver, he decided to conduct a public test of the lifespan of his lamps: popular light bulbs were placed side-by-side with his products, and all were connected to a source with a gradually increasing voltage. An 1897 Western Electrician recounted what happened next:

"Lamp after lamp of various brands burned out and exploded until the laboratory was left lit only by Shelby lamps - none of them noticeably damaged even under the extreme stress of such a graphic test."

Chaillet's original patent

According to The Electrical Review (1902), the brightness of the light bulbs was attributed to Chaillet's patented spiral carbon filament:

“It has been virtually stated that the inventor's main idea was to align the turns of the helix, as well as the bottom of the lamp, so that the greatest intensity of light was discharged downwards. The thread was wound in the form of a loop extended transversely from the axis of the lamp, or, in other words, an elliptical loop, the main axis of which ran transverse to the longitudinal axis of the lamp. The lamp body was similarly flattened at the upper end so that its glass wall was essentially parallel to the bottom lines of the filament loops when the lamp was suspended from the ceiling."

Citing such achievements, Shelby stated that his light bulbs last 30% longer and burn 20% brighter than any other bulbs in the world. His company experienced explosive success: according to Western Electrician magazine, they "received so many orders on the first of March that they had to work all night and dramatically increase the size of the plant." By the end of the year, the company's output had doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 lamps per day, and "the benefits of using Shelby lamps were so obvious that they no doubt did not go unnoticed even among the most skeptical consumers."

Over the next decade, Shelby continued to introduce new products, but as the light bulb market expanded significantly and new technologies (tungsten filaments) became available, the company was unable to make the large monetary investments necessary to maintain competition in the market. In 1914, they were bought by General Electric, and production of Shelby light bulbs was discontinued.

The Centennial Light

Seventy-five years later, in 1972, the fire chief in Livermore, California, reported to a local newspaper an oddity: a bare Shelby light bulb hanging from the ceiling of his station had been burning continuously for decades. In truth, it had long been a legend in the fire department, but no one knew for sure how long it burned or where it came from. Mike Dunstan, a young reporter with the Tri-Valley Herald, investigated the matter and what he found was truly impressive.

Tracing the light bulb's origins through dozens of oral histories and written histories, Dunstan determined that it was purchased by Dennis Bernal at the Livermore Power and Water Co. (the city's first power company) around the late 1890s and then transferred to the city's fire department in 1901 after Bernal sold the company. And, since only 3% of American homes were lit by electricity at the time, Shelby light bulbs were a hot commodity.

In its early years of use, the light bulb, known as the Centennial Light, was moved only a few times: it hung in the fire department for several months, and then, after a brief stay in the garage and city hall, it was moved to the Livermore fire station. “It was left on 24 hours a day to illuminate a dark path for the company's employees,” then-fire station chief Jack Baird told Dunstan. “It’s part of a different era of the city and it still does its job very well.”

Although Baird admitted that it was once turned off "for about a week when employees of the Roosevelt Public Works Department reconstructed the fire station back in the 1930s," representatives of the Guinness Book of Records still determined that the lamp was hand-blown The 30-watt reached a 71-year operating life and was "the oldest incandescent lamp in the world." This statement was followed by an immediate reaction from the press.

In addition to the firehouse renovation in 1930, the light bulb was turned off a couple more times - in 1976, when it was brought to the new Livermore Fire Station No. 6. Accompanied by an "escort consisting of many police and fire engines," the light bulb arrived to meet the big crowds eager to see it re-ignite, but as Deputy Fire Chief Tom Braendall recalls, “there was one scary moment”:

“We got to the new place, the city electrician installed the light bulb and connected it to the network. About 22-23 minutes passed and the light still did not light up. The crowd looked at her with bated breath. The city electrician grabbed the switch, shook it and it finally worked!”

After it was installed, the lamp was monitored on video to ensure that it was actually burning without interruption. In subsequent years, an online camera called “BulbCam” appeared on the Internet, demonstrating the operation of the lamp in real time. Last year, the light bulb's fans (of which there are almost 9,000 on Facebook) had a terrible scare when it stopped glowing.

At first it seemed that she had finally finished her job, but after nine and a half hours, it was discovered that the uninterruptible power supply to the light bulb had failed. As soon as their work was restored, the light bulb began to illuminate the room again. Thus, the 113-year-old incandescent lamp survived its power supply (however, it also survived three CCTV cameras).

Today the lamp still shines, although one retired volunteer fireman once said that "it doesn't put out much light anymore" (only about 4 watts). But the owners of this fragile piece of history treat it with great responsibility: Livermore firefighters care for the small light bulb like a porcelain doll. “Nobody wants to see that light bulb fail in front of them,” former fire chief Stuart Gary once said. “If it had broken while I was still in charge, it wouldn’t have been good for my career.”

They don't behave as usual

Everyone from MythBusters to National Public Radio has come up with their own explanations for the longevity of the Shelby light bulb. But, in general, there is only one answer - a complete mystery, because Schaie's patent left most of the process unexplained.

Some, like UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor David Tse, outright doubt the light bulb's authenticity. "It's impossible," he told the Chronicle in 2011. - It's a joke". Others, like engineering student Henry Slonsky, argue that this is most likely due to the fact that once all things were made with a huge margin of safety than today. “At that time,” he says, “people made everything much more durable than necessary.”

In 2007, Annapolis physics professor Deborah M. Katz bought an old Shelby light bulb from the same vintage as the Centennial Light and ran a series of experiments on it to determine its main differences from modern bulbs. In her findings, she reported that:

“I paid attention to the width of the filament, comparing it with the width of modern incandescent lamp filaments. It turns out that the filament of modern lamps is a coil with a diameter of about 0.08 mm, twisted from a wire about 0.01 mm thick. “I didn’t know this until I looked under a microscope: the width of a 100-year-old Shelby lamp filament is about the same as the width of the spiral filament of a modern light bulb - 0.08 mm.”

While Katz's research is inconclusive, she suggests that the fact that the Shelby light bulb's filament is eight times thicker than a modern light bulb may be the secret to its longevity. According to her, modern lamps use thinner tungsten filaments, which produce more light (from 40 to 200 watts) and burn hotter, which is why they feel more voltage than the old light bulbs like those invented by Shelby. “You can think of it as an animal with a low metabolism,” she told Centennial Light watchers. “This feature allows it to use less energy, so it can continue to work longer than others.” Katz also adds that the long operation of the light bulb, in particular, was facilitated by the fact that it was not turned off, as is done in everyday life, because this process wastes the energy of the light bulb more than if it were allowed to work continuously (the filament must warm up every time, just like a car engine).

Properties of the Shelby Light Bulb (according to Justin Felgar)

Justin Felgar, one of Dr. Katz's students, studied the light bulb further and published a paper in 2010 called "Centennial Lamp Filament." In it, Felgar writes that he was able to figure out one curious pattern: the hotter the Shelby lamp gets, the more electricity passes through the Centennial Light filament (which is the exact opposite of what happens with modern tungsten filaments). Felgar claims that in order to determine the exact cause of the Shelby lamp filament failure, it would be necessary to "tear off one piece" and run it through the particle accelerator at the Naval Academy, but this is a very expensive process, which is why it remains not verified.

Ultimately, Katz and her colleagues still don't have a definitive explanation for this mystery. “I thought that surely all physical processes must eventually come to an end,” she says. “But perhaps something accidental happened to this particular light bulb.” Livermore's former deputy fire chief agrees. "The reality is that this is probably just another freak of nature," he told NPR in 2003. "Only one in a million light bulbs can stay on like that, year after year."

Lamp cartel

Today, the average incandescent light bulb lasts about 1,500 hours, while top-of-the-line LED light bulbs ($25 each) last about 30,000 hours. Regardless of whether the century-old light bulb had a secret working formula or not, it burned for 113 years - that is, about 1 million hours. So why can't we create exactly the same long-lasting light bulb?

Lamp companies such as The Shelby Electric Company prided themselves on the long life of their products, so much so that the longevity of their products was a constant focus of their marketing campaigns. But by the mid-1920s, the way business was done had changed somewhat and a new rule began to prevail:

“Products that don’t wear out are a tragedy for business.” This school of thought is called “planned obsolescence,” in which manufacturers deliberately shorten the lifespan of their products, resulting in them being replaced more quickly.

In 1921, multinational light bulb manufacturer Osram formed the "Internationale Glühlampen Preisvereinigung" (International Light Bulb Pricing Association) to regulate prices and limit competition. General Electric soon responded by founding the "International General Electric Company" in Paris. Together these organizations traded patents and sales information to strengthen their position in the light bulb market.

In 1924, Osram, Philips, General Electric and other major electric power companies met and formed the Phoebus Cartel under the guise of a common collaboration ostensibly aimed at standardizing light bulbs. Instead, they began to engage in planned obsolescence. To achieve the latter, the companies agreed to limit the lifespan of light bulbs to 1000 hours - which is less than even the lifespan of Edison's lamps (1200 hours). Any company that produces a light bulb that lasts more than 1,000 hours will be fined.

Before its dissolution during World War II, the cartel allegedly stopped all research aimed at creating longer-lasting light bulbs for twenty years.

Whether or not planned obsolescence is still on the agenda for light bulb manufacturers is highly controversial and there is no definitive evidence that it happened (or is happening). In any case, the production of incandescent lamps is gradually declining around the world: this trend began to be seen in Brazil and Venezuela in 2005, and many countries followed suit (the European Union, Switzerland and Australia sharply reduced the production of incandescent lamps in 2009, Argentina and Russia - in 2012, and the United States, Canada, Mexico, Malaysia and South Korea- in 2014).

As soon as more efficient technologies appeared (halogen, LED, compact fluorescent lamps, magnetic induction lamps), old incandescent lamps have become a relic of the past. But hanging from the white ceiling of Livermore Fire Station No. 6, the incredibly old light bulb is as relevant as ever and still refuses to fail.

The material was prepared by Natalya Zakalyk - based on an article from priceonomics.com

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Is this what you were looking for? Perhaps this is something you couldn’t find for so long?

Residents of the American city of Livermore are preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the world's oldest light bulb. For 110 years now it has been shining almost without interruption, writes The Telegraph. A four-arm light bulb installed in a fire station in Livermore, California, entered the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest existing light bulb on the planet.

A businessman gave it to local firefighters in 1901. Since then, the light bulb has faithfully served fire fighters. The days when it suddenly stopped shining seem to be remembered by all Livermore residents by heart: one day in 1903, a week in 1937 and during rare power outages in the 30s - 70s of the XX century. According to Livermore energy scientist Lynn Owens, the mysterious light bulb has baffled many scientists. “No one knows why an ordinary four-arm light bulb did not burn out in 110 years. Scientists from all over the country came to look at it, but no one could come up with a single, even remotely plausible version. However, we did not let anyone touch it,” - said the energy worker.

The hundred-year lamp is the name given to the longest burning lamp in the world. It is located in the fire department of Livermore, California, and has burned continuously from 1901 to the present. The fire department says the lamp has burned continuously for at least 113 years and has only been turned off a few times during that time. The unusually long service life of the lamp was ensured mainly by operation at low power (4 watts), in a deep low-voltage state, with a very low efficiency. Due to its longevity, the "Hundred Year Lamp" was included in the Guinness Book of World Records and is often cited as evidence of the "planned obsolescence" of later-production incandescent lamps. The lamp has its own offsite, where you can look at it online at any time of the day through specially installed cameras. The lamp was produced by the privately owned Shelby Electric Company, which disappeared in 1912 as a result of its takeover by General Electric.

The lamp was created in accordance with the work of Edison's competitor, Adolphe Chaillet. Its filament was made of carbon (it is 8 times thicker than modern lamps). There is a version that this explains the incredible longevity of the lamp. At the beginning of the 20th century, manufacturers decided to abandon this manufacturing technology and such incandescent lamps were not mass produced.
The Centenary Lamp was originally rated at 30 or 60 watts, but is currently very dim, putting out about the same amount of light as, say, a 4-watt night light. The lamp was handmade at a facility in Shelby, Ohio in the late 1890s. There is evidence that the lamp was used in at least four places. It was originally installed in a fire department building in 1901 and was later moved to a garage in downtown Livermore that belonged to the fire and police departments. When the fire departments were merged, the lamp was moved again, this time to the newly built city hall, where the fire department was moved.

Her unusual longevity was first noticed in 1972 by reporter Mike Dunstan, talking with Livermore old-timers. He published an article in the Tri-Valley Herald that said, verbatim, “Lamplight may be the oldest.” Dunstan contacted Guinness World Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and General Electric Corporation, who confirmed that it was indeed the longest-lasting light bulb known to exist. In 1976, the fire department moved to another building. The legendary lamp was removed by cutting its wire, as it was feared that unscrewing it could damage it. The lamp was cut from power for just 22 minutes when the handover ceremony took place, while it was in a specially designed box and with a full escort of fire engines. "Ripley's Believe It or Not" made a statement that a short forced interruption in the operation of the lamp could not affect the record for the duration of continuous burning. In 2001, the 100th anniversary of the lamp was solemnly celebrated. In addition to shutdowns during the move, there were other short interruptions in its operation (for example, for a week in 1937 for repairs, as well as during random power outages).

On the evening of May 20, 2013, already under the surveillance of a special web camera, the light went out. The public was inclined to think that she had burned out. The next morning an electrician showed up to confirm this assumption. However, it was determined that the bulb did not burn out when the uninterruptible power supply supplying it was replaced with an extension cord. It turned out that the power supply was faulty. About seven hours later, the light came back on. The Centennial Lamp is currently under the care of the Centennial Light Committee, the Livermore Fire Department, the Livermore Heritage Guild, the Livermore National Laboratory, and the Sandia National Laboratory. The Livermore Fire Department plans to keep the Centennial Lamp burning no matter how long it takes before it burns out.

The average lifespan of an incandescent lamp ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 hours. LED bulbs can boast of a longer “life” - from 25,000 to 50,000 hours, which is why they are gradually replacing traditional incandescent lamps from the lighting market.

But all this is nothing compared to the lonely light bulb hanging in the basement of a California fire station, which has been continuously producing light for 989,000 hours, that is, almost 113 years. Experts from General Electrics and physicists around the world have already proclaimed it a source of eternal light.

The question arises: how can this be? Either this is another miracle of nature, or a sign of how little we know about incandescent lamps and that modern examples are no match for them. Let's try to figure it out.

A Brief History of the Light Bulb

The laurels of the inventor of the electric light bulb belong to the well-known Thomas Edison (Thomas Edison, 1879), but it should be said that he was not the only one who tried to create an electric light source.

In 1802, British chemist Humphry Davy produced light for the first time by heating thin strips of platinum white-hot with a current. Over the next 75 years, Davy's experiment served as the basis for the search of other inventors who were also trying to find a way to produce bright and long-lasting light by heating thin threads of a particular metal.

Scottish inventor James Bowman Lindsay was able to create a bright light in 1835 that, he said, allowed him to “read a book at a distance of one and a half feet” - but he soon abandoned experiments in this area to concentrate entirely on development wireless telegraphy.

Five years later, a team of British scientists conducted experiments with heating a platinum filament inside a vacuum tube. Despite the fact that platinum is a very expensive metal, and therefore light bulbs with a platinum filament would not be available to everyone, it was the design of this light bulb that formed the basis for the patent of the first electric light bulb in 1841.

American inventor John W. Starr could lay claim to the title of discoverer of the electric light bulb (in 1845, he integrated carbon filaments into an existing lamp design quite successfully), but the following year he died of tuberculosis, and his colleagues and were unable to bring his undertakings to completion, since they had neither knowledge of his level nor experience. A few years later, Joseph Swan applied Starr's achievements in his search and, in 1878, was able to assemble the first working prototype. modern lamp and became the first person to illuminate his home with electricity.

Meanwhile, American inventor Thomas Edison continued to work on improving carbon filaments. By 1880, he managed to extend the life of such a light bulb to 1,200 hours and set up production of such light bulbs to 130,000 copies per year.

In the midst of all these events, a man was born who ultimately created the very “eternal” light bulb that was mentioned in the introductory paragraph.

Adolphe Chaillet was born in 1867 in Paris at the height of the rapid growth of light industry in France. At the age of 11, he began working in a small company of his father, a Swedish immigrant, in a light bulb manufacturing company. He studied quickly, became seriously interested in physics, and subsequently graduated from the Academy of Sciences in both France and Germany. After spending several years designing fibers for a large German energy company, Adolf moved to the United States.

For some time he worked for the General Electrics we have already mentioned, and then, taking advantage of his fame as a brilliant electrician and engineer, he managed to find financial support for his own company - the Shelby Electric Company. Although Chaillet's success in the field of lamp production was already widely known, he still needed to prove from scratch to the American public that his products shine brighter and longer. Risking his own reputation, he decided on a bold experiment: Chaiet placed his light bulbs and those of the market-leading company side by side, connected them to the network, and gradually increased the voltage. From this impromptu competition, which he staged in public, Adolf emerged victorious and instantly attracted public attention to his product: they were the only ones left to burn, while the rest simply exploded.

Chaillet's success was determined by his own invention: spiral-twisted carbon threads.

Citing these advances, Shelby stated that their bulbs last 30% longer and are 20% brighter than any other bulb in the world. The company soon experienced stunning success: according to the Western Electrician, the Shelby Electric Company received so many orders as of March 1 that it needed to increase the scale of its plant and work around the clock. By the end of this year, they were able to double the volume of lamps produced: from 2,000 to 4,000 per day.

The advantage of Shelby lamps was so obvious that it did not raise doubts even among the most skeptical minds.

Over the next decade, the company continued to introduce new products, but after the lighting market expanded significantly and new companies began to use more advanced technologies (tungsten filaments, etc.), Shelby Electric Company was unable to adapt to the changing conditions and was eventually destroyed. bought by General Electric, and production of light bulbs was stopped.

hundred year light

75 years later, in 1972, the fire chief of the Californian city of Livermore wrote to the local newspaper with a message that shocked everyone: he discovered a lonely Shelby light bulb hanging in the basement of the fire station, which had been working continuously for decades. The firefighters themselves had long treated this light bulb as a kind of legend, a local landmark, but no one knew for certain exactly how long this light bulb had been burning and where it even came from. Mike Dunstan, a young reporter from the Tri-Valley Herald, set out to investigate the details of this story and what he eventually unearthed turned out to be no less interesting and exciting.

Tracing the history of the light bulb through dozens of oral histories and written accounts, Dunstan determined that the light bulb was purchased in the late 1890s by one Dennis Bernal, who at that time owned the city's first power company, Livermore Power and Water Co. After selling the company, Dennis donated the light bulb to the local fire department. It sounds a little comical now, but you need to remember that at that time only 3% of all homes in the United States were lit with electricity, and light bulbs were a real hot commodity.

At first, for several months the light bulb simply lay in the basket where the firefighting equipment was stored. Then she was hanged in the city hall, but she did not stay there long and returned to the fire department. Since then, according to the current fire chief, the light has rarely been extinguished, except when the firehouse was being rebuilt, when all power was turned off for a week. It happened that the lights were turned off several times, and in 1976 the light bulb was completely moved to the new fire station building. This sounds completely incredible, but a whole crowd of people watched the process of re-installing the lamp. At some point, it seemed that the light bulb had burned out, but the electricians turned the switches, and it again illuminated the entire area with bright light.

Video surveillance was carried out in the room where the light bulb was placed to make sure that the lamp would not go out over time and whether it could work uninterruptedly for a whole day. Even then it was treated as a miracle, but after folk craftsmen organized an online broadcast and everyone who was not too lazy began to watch the work of the light bulb, it turned into a cult.

At some point, the lamp went out and everyone decided that this was the end of the story, but after 9.5 hours it turned out that it was not the lamp that had burned out, but the wiring. The wires were replaced and the light came on again. As a result, this Shelby legend was able to survive not only the wiring, but also three CCTV cameras.

This legendary light bulb still shines to this day, but, according to eyewitnesses, it produces very little light: only 4 watts. However, the entire fire brigade treats this tiny glass ball like a porcelain doll. “Nobody wants a light bulb to go off,” former fire chief Gary Stewart once said. “If that happens, it won’t be a very good ending to my career.”

They don't make them like they used to

The longevity of this light bulb aroused the interest of many, and everyone tried to uncover the secret of this device. People from the famous TV show “Mythbusters” even came to the fire department, but they never found the answer.

Some, like David Tse, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, are more skeptical and consider the whole story of the eternal light bulb to be an absurd fiction. Others, like engineering student Henry Slonsky, on the contrary, are convinced of the veracity of history and explain such for a long time the work of a light bulb because in those distant times things were done with better quality.

In 2007, physics professor Deborah M. Katz of Annapolis purchased a similar light bulb that hangs in a firehouse and conducted a series of experiments, trying to figure out what distinguishes it from modern lamps and explains its enviable longevity.

The first thing she noticed was the width of the thread. But it turned out that in both modern lamps and Shelby lamps the width of the filament is approximately the same and amounts to 0.08 mm.

Then the professor suggested that the whole point was not in the width of the filament, but in its density: according to this indicator, Shelby light bulbs were 8 times superior to modern ones. Current designs use thinner tungsten filaments, which produce more light and heat (from 40 to 200 watts). Deborah explains: “Imagine an animal with a slow metabolism. This is the Shelby light bulb. It gives off less light, but lasts much longer.” Katz also does not exclude that the reason for longevity may be the fact that the light bulb was rarely turned off. The on-off process has a negative impact on any mechanism; it wears out.

What does the industry think?

The average lifespan of a modern incandescent lamp is 1,500 hours. LED lamps burn longer - 30,000 hours, but are correspondingly more expensive. The Shelby light bulb has been shining for 113 years, that is, about a million hours. What could the manufacturers have done wrong that they have shortened the operating period of the device so much? Or maybe this was done on purpose?

The fact is that in those times when the Shelby Electric Company took off, marketing emphasized the durability of the product. That’s why the Shaye company was so proud of the excellent quality of their products. But at the beginning of the 20th century, the emphasis in marketing shifted to the opposite pole and a completely different rhetoric began to dominate, which should sound quite familiar to us: a product that does not wear out threatens a business with collapse and bankruptcy. This idea was developed in the deliberate, planned obsolescence of a product, when the manufacturing company deliberately shortens the life of the product, stimulating repeat sales.

In 1924, large international companies such as Osram, General Electric, Philips and several other companies founded the so-called Phoebus Cartel, an organization that set standards for the production of light bulbs. But that was the public version. In reality, these companies have taken on the challenge of planned obsolescence. As a result, the life of a light bulb was reduced to 1,000 hours (although Edison had reached 1,200 hours a decade earlier), and anyone who brought products to market that did not meet these standards could be fined.

This continued until the beginning of the Second World War. But for these 20 years, this organization could easily have prevented research into creating more durable lamps.

Conclusion

There is no evidence to suggest that modern light bulb manufacturers are deliberately making inferior products, so the issue of planned obsolescence is highly controversial today.

One way or another, the production volume of traditional incandescent lamps is declining all over the world. More efficient now are halogen lamps, LED lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, and magnetic induction headlights. But none of them have yet come close to the record of that light bulb, which still hangs in the basement of the fire station and refuses to go out.

The Incomprehensible History of the 113-Year-Old Incandescent Light Bulb

The average incandescent lamp operates for 1000–2000 hours, after which it burns out. The operating life of LED lamps ranges from 25,000 to 50,000 hours.

But there is one lamp in a California fire department that has been in use for 989,000 hours—almost 113 years. This lamp was installed in 1901. Since then, a lot has changed, many fire service employees have changed, but one “eternal incandescent lamp” has remained unchanged. The longevity of her work is still a mystery.

A Brief History of the Incandescent Light Bulb

Thomas Edison is believed to have invented the first light bulb in 1879. Although earlier inventors experimented in this direction.

In 1802, British chemist Humphry Davy invented the incandescent lamp by applying current to platinum strips. Over the next 75 years, inventors iterated and improved the filament.

Scottish inventor James Bowman Lindsay famously boasted of his new light bulb in 1835, which allowed him to “read a book at a distance of one and a half meters,” but he later switched to wireless telegraphy.

Five years later, a whole group of scientists began experimenting with platinum filaments. And although the high price of platinum did not allow the creation of a device for mass production, the design they developed formed the basis for the first incandescent lamp patent, received in 1841.

American inventor John W. Starr replaced expensive platinum filaments with cheaper carbon filaments, but soon died of tuberculosis before finishing his development.

A few years later, British physicist Joseph Swan, using Starr's ideas, created a working copy of the lamp, and in 1878 became the first person in the world to decorate his home with incandescent light bulbs.

Thomas Edison in America worked on improving carbon filaments. By increasing the degree of vacuum in the lamp bulb, together with an improved carbon filament, in 1880 it was possible to achieve 1200 hours of lamp operation and put it into mass production in the amount of 130,000 lamps per year.

At the same time, a man was born who was destined to create the most durable light bulb in the world.

The Shelby Electric Company

Born in 1867, Chaillet lived in Paris and had the opportunity to observe how the popularity of electric light bulbs grew. At age 11, he decided to earn his own money and began accompanying his father, a Swedish immigrant and owner of a small incandescent lamp company. Chaillet became interested in physics and completed his studies at two academies of sciences - German and French. After training, Chaillet worked on the design of incandescent filaments for a large German energy company, and in 1896 he moved to the USA, where he worked for some time at General Electric, but then he managed to receive $100,000 in investment (equivalent to $2,750,000 in 2014) and open a factory for lamp manufacturer Shelby Electric Company.

To demonstrate the superior quality of his products, Shaie decided to conduct a public test. Light bulbs from different manufacturers were placed side by side and all were connected to the same power source, the voltage of which gradually increased. Western Electrician in 1897 tells what happened next:

“Various brands of lamps began to burn out and explode until the laboratory was left lit only by Shelby lamps, none of which were damaged even at the high voltage during such a graphic test.”

Shelby claimed that its bulbs last 30% longer and are 20% brighter than any other bulb in the world. This contributed to the explosive success of the company. In 1897, Western Electrician magazine reported that the company "received so many orders on the first of March that it was necessary to work through the night and greatly increase the size of the plant." By the end of the year, the company's productivity had doubled, from 2,000 to 4,000 lamps per day, and "the benefits of using Shelby lamps were so obvious that they undoubtedly did not go unnoticed even among the most skeptical consumers."

Production continued throughout the next decade. During this time, new technologies with tungsten filaments and new manufacturers appeared. The Shelby company was unable to modernize its production in time and was unable to compete with new manufacturers. In 1914, they were bought by General Electric, and production of Shelby light bulbs was discontinued.

The Centennial Light

In 1972, the fire chief in the city of Livermore, California, reported an oddity to the local newspaper. Shelby's light bulb, located on the ceiling of his station, has been continuously lit for decades. This light bulb has long been a legend in the fire department and no one knows for sure how long it burns or where it came from. Mike Dunstan, a young reporter with the Tri-Valley Herald, investigated the matter and what he found was truly impressive.

After collecting dozens of oral histories and written histories, Dunstan determined that the light bulb was purchased by Dennis Bernal from the Livermore Power and Water Co. (the city's first power company) around the late 1890s and then transferred to the city's fire department in 1901 after Bernal sold the company.

In its early years of use, the light bulb, known as the Centennial Light, was moved only a few times: it hung in the fire department for several months, and then, after a brief stay in the garage and city hall, it was moved to the Livermore fire station. “It was left on 24 hours a day to illuminate a dark path for company employees,” then-fire station chief Jack Baird told Dunstan.”

Although Baird admitted that it was once turned off "for about a week when employees of the Roosevelt Public Works Department reconstructed the fire station back in the 1930s," representatives of the Guinness Book of Records still determined that the lamp was hand-blown The 30-watt reached a 71-year operating life and was "the oldest incandescent lamp in the world."

In addition to the firehouse renovation in 1930, the light bulb was turned off a couple more times, in 1976, when it was brought to the new Livermore Fire Station No. 6. Accompanied by an "escort of many police and fire engines," the light bulb arrived to meet the big to a crowd eager to see it light up again.

After installing the lamp in a new place, they began to conduct video surveillance of it to make sure that the latter was actually burning without interruption. In subsequent years, an online camera called “BulbCam” appeared on the Internet, demonstrating the operation of the lamp in real time. Last year, the light bulb's fans (of which there are almost 9,000 on Facebook) had a terrible scare when it stopped glowing.

At first it seemed that she had finally finished her job, but after nine and a half hours, it was discovered that the uninterruptible power supply to the light bulb had failed. As soon as their work was restored, the light bulb began to illuminate the room again. Thus, the 113-year-old incandescent lamp survived its power supply (however, it also survived three CCTV cameras).

Now the long-lived lamp has its own website www.centennialbulb.org, where, among other things, you can monitor its operation via a webcam (pictures are taken at 10-second intervals).

Today the lamp still shines, although one retired volunteer fireman once said that "it doesn't put out much light anymore" (only about 4 watts). But the owners of this fragile piece of history treat it with great responsibility: Livermore firefighters care for the small light bulb like a porcelain doll. “Nobody wants to see that light bulb fail in front of them,” former fire chief Stuart Gary once said. “If it had broken while I was still in charge, it wouldn’t have been good for my career.”

They don't behave as usual

Everyone from MythBusters to National Public Radio has come up with their own explanations for the longevity of the Shelby light bulb. But, in general, there is only one answer - a complete mystery, because Schaie's patent left most of the process unexplained.

Some, like UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor David Tse, outright doubt the light bulb's authenticity. Others, like engineering student Henry Slonsky, argue that this is most likely due to the fact that things were once made with a greater margin of safety than today. “At that time,” he says, “people made everything much more durable than necessary.”

Justin Felgar, one of Dr. Katz's students, studied the light bulb further and published a paper in 2010 called "Centennial Lamp Filament." In it, Felgar writes that he was able to figure out one curious pattern: the hotter the Shelby lamp gets, the more electricity passes through the Centennial Light filament (which is the exact opposite of what happens with modern tungsten filaments). Felgar claims that in order to determine the exact cause of the Shelby lamp filament failure, it would be necessary to "tear off one piece" and run it through the particle accelerator at the Naval Academy, but this is a very expensive process, which is why it remains not verified.

Ultimately, Katz and her colleagues still don't have a definitive explanation for this mystery. “I thought that surely all physical processes must eventually come to an end,” she says. “But perhaps something accidental happened to this particular light bulb.” Livermore's former deputy fire chief agrees. "The reality is that it's probably just another freak of nature," he told NPR in 2003. "Only one in a million light bulbs can stay on like that, year after year."

Lamp cartel

Today, the average incandescent light bulb lasts about 1,500 hours, while top-of-the-line LED light bulbs ($25 each) last about 30,000 hours. Regardless of whether the century-old light bulb had a secret working formula or not, it burned for 113 years - that is, about 1 million hours. So why can't we create exactly the same long-lasting light bulb?

Lamp companies such as The Shelby Electric Company prided themselves on the long life of their products, so much so that the longevity of their products was a constant focus of their marketing campaigns. But by the mid-1920s, the way business was done had changed somewhat and a new rule began to prevail:

“Products that don’t wear out are a tragedy for business.” This school of thought is called “planned obsolescence,” in which manufacturers deliberately shorten the lifespan of their products, resulting in them being replaced more quickly.

In 1921, multinational light bulb manufacturer Osram formed the “Internationale Glühlampen Preisvereinigung” (International Light Bulb Pricing Association) to regulate prices and limit competition. General Electric soon responded by founding the "General Electric International Company" in Paris. Together, these organizations traded patents and sales information to strengthen their position in the lighting market.

In 1924, Osram, Philips, General Electric and other major electric power companies met and formed the Phoebus Cartel under the guise of a common collaboration ostensibly aimed at standardizing light bulbs. Instead, they began to engage in planned obsolescence. To achieve the latter, the companies agreed to limit the lifespan of light bulbs to 1000 hours - which is less than even the lifespan of Edison's lamps (1200 hours). Any company that produces a light bulb that lasts more than 1,000 hours will be fined.

Before its dissolution during World War II, the cartel allegedly stopped all research aimed at creating longer-lasting light bulbs for twenty years.

Whether or not planned obsolescence is still on the agenda of light bulb manufacturers, the issue is highly debatable and there is really no hard evidence that it happened (or is happening). In any case, the production of incandescent lamps is gradually declining around the world: this trend began to be seen in Brazil and Venezuela in 2005, and many countries followed suit (the European Union, Switzerland and Australia sharply reduced the production of incandescent lamps in 2009, Argentina and Russia - in 2012, and the United States, Canada, Mexico, Malaysia and South Korea - in 2014).

As more efficient technologies (halogen, LED, compact fluorescent lamps, magnetic induction lamps) become available, the old incandescent lamps gradually become a relic of the past. But hanging from the white ceiling of Livermore Fire Station No. 6, the incredibly old light bulb is as relevant as ever and still refuses to fail.