A New Bulb Book!
|
The Bulb Goes to the Fair!
|
Bulb Replicas At Last!
|
Visiting Hours:
Every day 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
when on-duty personnel are available.
See the Visting Hints page for more information.
|
|
.
Welcome to the homepage of the Centennial Bulb, the Longest burning Light Bulb in history. Now in its 120th year of
illumination. For those of you coming here for the first time, feel free to explore the pages of our amazing little bulb, with
pictures, stories, facts, and history.
For all you first time visitors, check out our Visting Hints page!
Please read this if you are coming for the first time, as it should answer many of your questions. Also while you are here,
please ask to see the "multi-bulb display" lit up, (you can see a 100 year old Shelby Bulb up close too).
2021
Martin Kykta writes an article about the light bulb titled,
The Mystery of the Centennial Bulb: an Incandescent Light Bulb©.
Martin is President of MAK Electro-Optics. He is a physicist with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
He has worked in the semiconductor, optics and display industry for more than 30 years. He has worked on LED, liquid crystal, CRT,
FED and MEM technology and printed electronics. He also has worked on many patents and has written articles on display related technology.
He is a member of OSA, SPIE and SID organizations.
2020
Fran Blanche posted a YouTube video titled "120 Year Old Shelby Light Bulb - Still Working!!", in November of 2020. You can view it
here.
2017
In terms of bulb activities, it was a very quiet year.
It had the normal amount of curious visitors, and a few tv crews drop by, but it's 116th year was just a slow warm glow.
2016
A new display case was finished below the bulb by the Firefighters at the station. The New Bulbcam, a Sony, was put up and has been
sending out pictures twice as big, sharp, and clear! Thank you Don Peters.
2015
We Celebrated the One Million Hour Party! As in 2001, and 2011, the Centennial Light Bulb reached another milestone
of 1,000,000 hours! Good times were had by all at Fire Station 6 in Livermore, CA with food, fun, and history in the making.
Click 1 Million Hours Bulb to see a web page showing the day. Also click here
Bulbcam page to see the party from the Bulb's perspective.
2014
At the beginning of 2014; Livermore has officially taken the Bulb under it's wing, and plans are under way to create a
new display under the Bulb, and on the wall, a new look at the Bulbcam, and a re-invention of this website. Stay tuned for lots of
changes.
2013
The Bulb is Still Alive! After being Off for over 10 hours on the morning of May 20, 2013, Retired Asst. Chief Tom
Bramell called the Station Captain and bypassed the UPS generator, and it Worked! See some pictures of the Bulb off on
the Bulbcam page.
To see the story by Juliette Goodrich, go to
World's Longest Running Lightbulb Goes Out In Livermore.
Steve Bunn, former webmaster who established this website, and member of the Centinnial Bulb committee visited the North Fort Worth
Historical Society museum in Fort Worth, Texas. He was able to see a younger sister bulb and visit with the NFWHS committee.
You can see pictures of his visit here: Palace Bulb
At last an answer to the most often asked question about the Bulb! (Next to why is it still burning). The question being,
how much did the Bulb cost when it was sold? You can find the answer by following this link to an advertisement page aquired of
the Lockwood, Luetkemeyer, and Henry Co Catalog.
Christopher Leps directed a 45 minute documentary on the light
bulb called, "Century of Light" available to watch at https://vimeo.com/113518437!!
Our intrepid photographer Dick Jones has been a major contributor to many of the photos on this website.
He has just made his first book named
Aerial Photography, and is in the process of
making another based on his mothers poetry, soon to be released.
Juliett Goodrich has also released a new children's book, in 2012, named
I Am Special Because I Smile,
which is about the Special Olympics.
A new unique Shelby Light Bulb was found sealed in a wall of Adolph Chailett's home in Shelby, Ohio!!!
Please follow this link to Tom Clabaugh's page,
A light from our distant past.
Or go to the articles page to read the Shelby Globe,
as donated by Tom Sutter, an old Shaggy Shelbian.
|