# century old lamp still burning



## electric mike (Jun 15, 2009)

http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...has-glowed-for-a-century-plus-10.html?sid=101

still going strong :thumbsup:


edit: you can watch it on a webcam!!!! http://www.centennialbulb.org/


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## Chris Kennedy (Nov 19, 2007)

Very interesting link.


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

That was cool.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

That thing is pretty awesome. I've got some lamps I yanked out of an ancient ground-detection system that I think are at least 60 years old and still work because they were running at about 1/5 illumination.

No markings on them, I wish there was a way to date them by construction.

-John


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

electric mike said:


> http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...has-glowed-for-a-century-plus-10.html?sid=101
> 
> still going strong :thumbsup:
> 
> ...


 Thanks for the link...good stuff..:thumbsup:


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## electricalperson (Jan 11, 2008)

i think they still sell those old carbon filament lamps on the internet. i believe they are expensive


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

electric mike said:


> http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...has-glowed-for-a-century-plus-10.html?sid=101
> 
> still going strong :thumbsup:
> 
> ...


Back a few years,I did a remodel in a 1920 house that had a 5 lamp fixture in the 'telephone' room. 4 of the original lamps still worked. The amazing part was that apparently, way back, the fixture was connected to the phone system so the fixture would flash when the phone was ringing.


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

wcord said:


> Back a few years,I did a remodel in a 1920 house that had a 5 lamp fixture in the 'telephone' room. 4 of the original lamps still worked. The amazing part was that apparently, way back, the fixture was connected to the phone system so the fixture would flash when the phone was ringing.


My grandfather had a phone room in his house years ago. I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to build one for us. That went over like a lead balloon.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

I think I read somewhere that the bulb is powered by like 100 V, to extend the life.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

InPhase277 said:


> I think I read somewhere that the bulb is powered by like 100 V, to extend the life.


That fire house is nearby where I live.
It's technically a full 120VAC utility system feeding "the circuit", but it does have an on-line UPS (and backup genset) hooked up to it now so they don't lose their record and that does also keep the power stable and clean. It's pretty amazing really, but it's very dim. The dirty little secret is that is was originally designed as a 60W 110V bulb, and they tell everyone "it's currently running as a 4W bulb" without saying how. What they did was bury a resistor in the leads *to *the socket when they moved it last time in the mid 70s. 

So knowing it's a 60W 110V design "running at 4W" we can take it for a ride on Ohm's Wheel and see that it has roughly 202ohms of resistance, so to get 4W out of it the voltage *AT THE FILAMENT* has been dropped to roughly 28V. 

But don't tell the school kids who visit it...


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## jmellc (Feb 25, 2011)

Reminds me of hearing a guy in 2005 talk about replacing a motor in a local factory. Original motor had just died. Was installed in 1929. 76 years isn't too bad for a motor. He should have offered the motor to the mfr (if still around) for them to use in their advertising.


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## electricalperson (Jan 11, 2008)

they had a few old large HP motors at a ship yard near me. the motor was about 3 feet tall by 4 feet wide or so. i dont remember the exact specs but it was an old GE motor from the 20s or 30s. it powered the chains that pull the boats to the dry dock


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## jmellc (Feb 25, 2011)

Amazing how long some things last & how quickly others fail. I get sick of some of the junk we have to deal with, such as light fixtures, that can easily break when installing them. Cheap is the operative word all too often.


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