Could This Be The Oldest Working Light Bulb On YouTube???

You can still get them, the Edisons are pretty common and inexpensive because they made so many of them.

Fran Blanche

Beautiful! I haven't had a chance to see a lamp that old in person. The oldest lamp I had was an Edison lamp that I got out of an attic in the West Chester area back in the late 1980s. It was still in a porcelain socket in the attic, which the homeowners had asked us to "upgrade" to a new light. I kep that bulb and lit it once or twice afterwards. When I left home, I left it there for safekeeping. When I came back 14 years later, it turned out that my brother had used it as a regular light bulb and burned it out. Made me feel sick... :(

Peter Argyropoulos

I knew it would hold up. It's a Shelby!

Fran Blanche

no - one filament.

Fran Blanche

Nah - There are a lot of 19th century bulbs still out there, but the Shelby is much more rare because they just did not make as many of them.

Fran Blanche

This is really cool stuff, Fran. Thank you so much for sharing it! You are braver than I am, firing up that old beauty.

Jason Thorpe

looks like a party bulb from the 70s...and does it have two filaments in parallel?

Yes, I saw that--I have to admit, as you were inching up the voltage on the Variac, I was afraid that the 125 year old filament was just going to give up, despite the fact that it wasn't operating anywhere near its full capacity. 125 years old!!

I grew up in Shelby! It's known for for the birthplace of the seamless steel tube industry and bicycles

That's a really neat light bulb, Fran. Just wondering... given that the Centennial Bulb was installed in 1901, would this make your Shelby bulb the oldest working light bulb in the world? Or are there other working bulbs that are even older?

OzRetrocomp

I only pushed it to 11 watts - not hot enough to really start glowing white.

Fran Blanche

Nice Light bulb! Really like the envelop Thank you

William Nimmo

Wow! I never heard of Shelby! Since it wasn't a bulb from HIS factories, I wonder if Mr. Edison ever looked at his competition's products..? Question: was it producing "appreciable" light? on camera, it didn't look much brighter than a candle, but that could be very deceiving. Beautiful thing, though--a real "collector's item!"

Fascinating post Fran, thanks. While I might never get a Shelby Bulb, I was tickled to see that I do have the same Variac. Either they are very common or I was very lucky at my last Hamfest. Stay safe!

Paul Pruss

If I was lucky enough to own that, I would build it it's very own display case in the most prominent position I could place it, so that I could enjoy it everyday. What a treasure!

Mike Hughes

clear bulbs where you could see the filament, even modern ones.. .. well they will be missed.. LED may be more power efficient but it just isn't as pretty and this is next level gorgeous..

Fifty years ago I would have laughed at thinking I would someday be so amazed to see someone turn on an old light bulb. Thanks - that was fun!

Robert S. Owen

Fran mentioned the Centennial Bulb being "somewhere in California", and I had heard of it but thought it was somewhere in New York City, for some reason. It turns out to be in Livermore, CA, which is only a 30 minute drive from where I live in San Jose. Very exciting! I will be visiting the fire station there that houses this marvel, very soon! F.y.i. -- the Centennial Bulb has its own web page with some very interesting info, plus a webcam pointed at the bulb, which updates every 30 seconds (that's a pretty reasonable refresh rate for something that hasn't moved in 117 years, lol). Here is the web site: http://centennialbulb.org/index.htm

Peter Knazko

Credit to those women that built them to last.

I was thinking after you were hyping up the longevity of the bulb that was going to jinx it and it was going to blow! :)

It was a different non-throwaway time then. Mom came to the US from England after WW2. Her new Mother-In-Law handed her a paper bag full of burned out light bulbs. "Be a dear and take these down to the electric company and trade them in for new ones. ... No, you don't need any money." Mom was skeptical expecting it to be akin to "Fetch me a new bubble for my level," hazing she went through in war work. ... No problem. They counted up the bulbs in the bag, and handed her fresh bulbs. The electric company put in new filaments and recycled the bulbs. Electric rates covered the service.

Steven Ruhl

Spoiler Alert - Another video soon about that...

Fran Blanche

looks like a protein structure

So these sintered tungsten filaments burning out all the time are just a commercial invention to increase bulb sales? :) (now passed by LEDS anyway here in the EU)

Cool!

William Alsing

What's the fun in that? I want to use my x² button! ☺

Fran Blanche

Very cool! (Hot!) Your comments about long-forgotten lightbulb trade secrets reminded me of similar secrets in the electron tube industry. Every manufacturer had their own special blend of cathode coatings, guarded with the same secrecy as the formula to Coca-cola. (At least as far as the 'bigs' like GE, RCA, Sylvania, etc.)

Drewski Brewski

Cool bulb! Thanks. R=V/I would be a less roundabout way to get the resistance. :-)

Begging to be updated with super bright white LEDs. Only joking of course :-) Indeed a priceless item in your collection, just watching the video now, amazing it still works after all this time.

Leigh