Perhaps each of us at least once faced the need to replace a burnt-out light bulb. And although today there are many modifications of them, including those that last longer, they still have to be changed sooner or later. But the fire department employees of a small American town do not have such a problem because their light bulb has been on for more than a hundred years.
The story began in 1901 in Livermore, California, when a local electrician ran electricity to the fire department by hanging an incandescent light bulb, also known as an “Edison bulb,” from the ceiling. And what is most striking, ever since it was turned on, it has not gone out. The unremarkable light bulb “survived” two world wars, space flight, the invention of the Internet and much more. Time passed, and her light continued to illuminate the fire department.
Of course, one cannot exclude the case when electricity was lost in the unit, but physically no one ever turned off the light bulb. In addition, the switch is equal in age to the lamp itself, and then they were placed in the cartridge, that is, under the ceiling.
For a long time, few people knew about the phenomenon of the “eternal light bulb”, except, perhaps, the firefighters of the city of Livermore and its inhabitants. And only in 1972, after a visit to the fire department, a local journalist made a note about a long-lived lamp, after which they began to show great interest in it. Experts from the Guinness Book of Records even came to the unit, who confirmed that the age of the light bulb, as well as the building in which it is located, exceeds a century.
The history of the light bulb that does not go out continues to hold popularity today, and now its light can be monitored from anywhere in the world in real-time. In 2010, the light bulb got its own website, where you can see only one piece of news – that it continues to burn. As evidence, the fire station installed a webcam to help make sure that the light bulb, even after 121 years, continues to give light.
