The world’s oldest light bulb has been burning for at least 123 years

Light bulbs developed into everyday use at the end of the 19th century. Their winning streak in the world lasted approximately until the beginning of the 21st century.

Now a generation has already been born into the world that may not know what light bulbs even were.

Light bulbs are forgotten, because LED is a much lighter, more convenient and economical light.

One however, the light bulb just doesn’t seem to go away. The ancient spirit of the lamp burns with a faint orange light at a fire station in California in the United States – like an eternal “night light”.

Next year will be its 124th year of illumination. It is the longest burning light bulb in the world.

The website tells about the electric lamp Science Alert.

The lamp there are some ambiguities in the initial stages. The lamp has been named in the investigation Centennial Lightthe light of the century.

The matter has been clarified by, among others, Guinness World Records. According to the official Guinness Book of Records, it has been burning since 1901.

Engineer Martin Kykta investigated the structure and durability of the lamps in 2021. He predicted that with a power of four watts, the famous lamp can burn for another century, writes Science Alert.

The California fire station lamp became famous in the 1970s. Herald News –the newspaper asked and found out where in the world the longest-burning electric bulb could be.

Turns out one candidate was at a fire station in Livermore. The lamp is still in the possession of the local fire department.

What was the secret of the lamp? It turned out that its light was only turned off when forced or by accident. So the light was always left on around the clock.

It thus provided light for volunteer rescuers in the evenings and at night. That’s what the fire chief of the Livermore station told a reporter in 1972. A few times, though, a power outage put it out.

Contemporary light bulbs are known for a completely different thing, i.e. a shortened service life. This is not necessarily the plan of the manufacturers, although it has been claimed.

If light bulbs are turned off regularly, it wears out the tungsten filament of the bulbs as the filament expands and contracts. Tungsten was once a common material for light bulbs.

The fire station lamp was made by a company called Shelby. Its products had a carbon filament that did not wear out as easily as tungsten, Science Alert writes.

Shelby’s lamp was hand blown. The carbon filament is still in the vacuum in the lamp.

of LEDs said to last up to 50,000 hours. It’s almost six years. The reading is nowhere near the life cycle of a California fire station lamp.