Oldest lamp?

[securespark]

Have just (well, pre-Xmas) replaced an old 100W GLS in a swan neck fitting outside. The customer told me it was there when they moved in and they hadn't changed it since. I can believe it from the design of the lamp...

They moved in in 1952...

 

[plugwash]

we have a really old lamp like that on our garage

the power in the garage was disconnected when we moved in and dad rewried and reconnected the garage it after the rewire

we decoded to recconect this lamp a few years later. We managed to get the porcelian bulb holder (which was in perfectly good condition) out and replace the lead and paper covered single cores.with some modern T&E and ahve never had a problem with the light.

 

[TexMex]

Was this job in Hornchurch, Essex by any chance? My wifes Auntie had one of those, that was still going strong about 6 years ago. It had been there since she moved into her house in about 1952. As far as I know it may still be (it's not the sort of thing you ask about, on a regular basis). The aunt is now dead, but her son (my wifes cousin), now lives in the same house. The last I knew, the lamp was older than him (and his elder brother)!

As I say, I haven't heard anything about the lamp lately. Perhaps I should check up on it.

 

[mapj1]

I think I can beat this, my parents have a set of fairy lights, purchased in 1936, when my mothers older brother was a new baby, which has still got over half the original lamps in - and since the addition of a silicon diode in the supply in the 1970s, to reduce the filamanet temperatures a bit hasn't blown any more bulbs (which is good, as no-one makes 20volt 100ma MES bulbs for fairy lights any more. )
Pre-dating rubber insulation the double cotton over tinned copper is still going strong, although as they are only used at christmas, maybe its not a fair comparison.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

http://www.centennialbulb.org/index.htm

And if you go to the webcam - http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm - you can see it burning still, so it's now 104 years old, or will be some time this year.

 

[Paul_C]

Still going strong at 110 this year:

http://www.centennialbulb.org/celeb.htm

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Shame mapj1 is no longer with us.

http://www.ajhills.co.uk/index.cgi?command=list&search=20v Clear

 

[Paul_C]

I should probably stock up with those. I still have a couple of light sets from the 1950's/60's which use them, and I know that at least a few of the lamps still in use date from the early 1970's.

I have a few of the "fancy" types as well, with various colored twists, Santa Claus faces, etc., also of similar age. I keep them a little under-run via a transformer now when they come out.