The world's oldest working light bulb turned 110 years old Saturday and the 60-watt incandescent globe is still glowing, if a bit more dimly than when it was first turned on in 1901, according to its own Centennial Bulb website.
"They certainly don't make them like this anymore, it's a real sign of how some things were better made in the past," Steve Bunn, who keeps the bulb burning at the Livermore Volunteer Fire Department in Livermore, Calif., told the Daily Telegraph a year ago. (Video interview below.)
The bulb was manufactured by the Shelby Electric Company—hence its nickname, the "Shelby bulb" —and designed as a special one-off by Thomas Edison's rival Adolphe Chaillet to last longer and burn brighter than Edison's light bulbs.
But Chaillet's light bulb design alone doesn't explain why the Shelby bulb has had stamina to keep burning through two world wars, a pair of global economic disasters, the entirety of the computer age, and the evolution of transportation from horses-and-buggies to orbiting space stations.
In its early 20s, the bulb may well have illuminated newspaper articles about the Teapot Dome Scandal. As it turns 110, it's Weinergate that's making the headlines.
"Nobody knows how it's possible," Lynn Owens, head of the light bulb centennial committee, told Time magazine recently.
"It's a 60-watt bulb and it's only turned on for about four watts, but nobody knows why it keeps burning ... We've had scientists from all over the country look at this light bulb."
The bulb hasn't actually been illuminated continuously since 1901—there have been have been a few power outages over the years that have shut off its quirkily looping coiled filament. But every time the juice came back on, so did the Shelby bulb, which is kept up high and far from prying hands at the Livermore fire station.
"They certainly don't make them like this anymore, it's a real sign of how some things were better made in the past," Steve Bunn, who keeps the bulb burning at the Livermore Volunteer Fire Department in Livermore, Calif., told the Daily Telegraph a year ago. (Video interview below.)
The bulb was manufactured by the Shelby Electric Company—hence its nickname, the "Shelby bulb" —and designed as a special one-off by Thomas Edison's rival Adolphe Chaillet to last longer and burn brighter than Edison's light bulbs.
But Chaillet's light bulb design alone doesn't explain why the Shelby bulb has had stamina to keep burning through two world wars, a pair of global economic disasters, the entirety of the computer age, and the evolution of transportation from horses-and-buggies to orbiting space stations.
In its early 20s, the bulb may well have illuminated newspaper articles about the Teapot Dome Scandal. As it turns 110, it's Weinergate that's making the headlines.
"Nobody knows how it's possible," Lynn Owens, head of the light bulb centennial committee, told Time magazine recently.
"It's a 60-watt bulb and it's only turned on for about four watts, but nobody knows why it keeps burning ... We've had scientists from all over the country look at this light bulb."
The bulb hasn't actually been illuminated continuously since 1901—there have been have been a few power outages over the years that have shut off its quirkily looping coiled filament. But every time the juice came back on, so did the Shelby bulb, which is kept up high and far from prying hands at the Livermore fire station.
