Answer Me This! Podcast

** Click here for EPISODE 83 **

Reluctant as we are to reignite the Great Lightbulb Row of Episode 82, some of you have been in touch with less ranty contributions than Martin the Sound Man’s in response to Gareth from Glasgow‘s question about an everlasting lightbulb. Firstly: they’re real, says Kathryn from Denver!

Here’s an article about a lightbulb in San Francisco that has burned since 1901 – forever for a bunch of dead people!

If you don’t believe it, there’s a webcam of the damn thing. It’s a fascinating 24/7 glimpse into the everyday comings-and-goings of a lightbulb.

Meanwhile, Neil from Essex written in to suggest how you could manufacture your very own everlasting lightbulb:

The reason light bulbs do “burn out” is because of the filament oxidising. Theoretically if you can make a bulb in an oxygen-free environment it will last forever! Unless you have a power surge or… other things… like nuclear war or an angry child with a fully automatic machine gun.

I’m sure that in the event of a nuclear war or armed-and-dangerous child, it would be a great comfort if your immediate concern was potential disruption to your lightbulb experiment.

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This entry was posted on January 25, 2009 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Answer Us Back! Your time to opine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.