

Longest burning light bulb, The centennial light bulb in livermore, California
Originally a 30-watt lamp, the Centennial Light now produces nearly as much light as a 4-watt nightlight. The hand-blown, carbon-filament common light bulb was created by French inventor Adolphe Chaillet, who also applied for a patent for it. It was produced in the late 1890s by the Shelby Electric Company in Shelby, Ohio, and many others just like it are still in use today.
Dennis Bernal, according to Zylpha Bernal Beck, gave the lightbulb to the fire department in 1901. The Livermore Power and Water Company was owned by Bernal, who also donated the lightbulb to the fire department after selling the business.
In 1972, journalist Mike Dunstan discovered its extraordinary tenacity. After spending weeks interviewing residents of Livermore who had lived there all of their lives, he published “Light Bulb May Be World’s Oldest” in the Tri-Valley Herald.

Dunstan got in touch with General Electric, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and the Guinness Book of World Records, all of which confirmed that it was the world’s longest-lasting bulb. The post was informed to Charles Kuralt of the CBS-TV program On the Road with Charles Kuralt.
In order to prevent the bulb from being destroyed if the lamp’s socket was unscrewed, the cord was severed before the lamp was moved to Fire Station #6 for the fire department in 1976. Only 22 minutes were lost during the switch, which was carried out in a specially constructed box with a full firetruck escort.
The emergency generator at the new fire station was connected to the light bulb by an electrician on site. According to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, the brief interruption will not affect the bulb’s history of consistent fires. Since then, the light has been powered by an uninterruptible power source; previously, it had only been taken off the grid for brief periods of time (for example, a week in 1937 for a renovation).

A dedicated webcam allowed the general public to see the bulb had apparently burned out on the evening of May 20, 2013. The following morning, an electrician was contacted to confirm the situation. The light wasn’t burned out, as was discovered when the dedicated power source was turned off using an extension cable. The power supply was found to be broken. The sun had been out for nearly nine hours and 45 minutes before it was finally restored.
Fun Facts About the Bulb
- The Centennial Light Bulb turned 100 years old in 2001. There was live music and a community barbecue!
- In 2013, those who keep an eye on bulbs were startled when the light seemed to go out. Fortunately, a bad power supply was the culprit. Shortly after, the Centennial Light Bulb lit up.
- The live webcam on the light bulb allows you to check on its progress even though it might not make for particularly compelling entertainment.
A Burning Conspiracy
The Centennial Bulb is more than just a piece of filament, metal, and glass artifact. Given its past and remarkable durability, there must be more to this tiny relic than just its production. The most well-known lightbulb myth is that once upon a time, things were made to last. Beginning in the 1920s, a group of businessmen understood that if a product refused to age, then it would spell the end for their industry. The first global cartel to shorten the life of the incandescent light bulb was soon after established.

A man who has been suffering from headaches for nearly six months discovers chopsticks lodged in his brain
When it was discovered that a Vietnamese man with headaches and vision problems had chopsticks lodged in his brain, the doctors were almost as surprised as the man himself.

Smart guy brings life-sized cutout of his late mother to his graduation
Even though that his mother passed away in 2016, a young man had a clever idea to make a life-size cutout of her and bring it to the event so that she could attend his graduation ceremony.

Max Headroom Incident: America’s Creepiest TV Hack
In 1987 a man hijacked a television station during an episode of Dr. Who and wore a Max Headroom mask and uttered nonsense, and he still hasn’t been caught

A man who was saved from committing suicide 16 years ago now assists people dealing with mental health issues
Kevin Berthia traveled to the Golden Gate Bridge in 2005 to commit suicide. He ended up spending 92 minutes on the edge of the bridge talking to officer Kevin Briggs about his life. In much better circumstances, they cross paths at the same bridge ten years later.

The Man Who Survived Falling Through a Thunderstorm, William Rankin
William Rankin was a fighter pilot who survived an ejection into a thunderstorm. He suffered frostbite, violent wind and lightning, severe decompression, and nearly drowned from breathing in rain water. He was in the cloud for over 40 minutes in total.

'Press Your Luck' Was Hacked in 1984 by an Ice Cream Man
in 1984 an contestant made it onto the game show Press Your Luck. He discovered using his stop-motion VCR that the presumed random patterns of the game board were not random and memorized the sequences. On the game he was on, he won 45 consecutive spins. winning $110,237 in cash & prizes.

Hyperinflation of the Zimbabwe dollar turning phasing out their local money in 2015
Hyperinflation of the Zimbabwe dollar made it one of the lowest valued currencies in the world. So the country abandoned it in 2009, and switched to using foreign money. In 2015, to complete the process of phasing out their local money, the government offered to exchange it at a rate of one US dollar for 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.

The Terrifying Mount St. Helens Eruption is Captured by the Robert Landsburg Photographs
Robert Landsburg, a photographer who upon realisation that he is going to die in the mount St. Helens eruption of 1980 lay down on top if his equipment to preserve the photographs he had taken of the events. Landsburg‘s body was found 17 days later, buried in ash with his film intact.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z's Hospital Security Blocked NICU Access for Father of Premature Twins
A father was denied access to see his premature twins in the NICU when Beyonce and Jay-Z had their daughter at the same time.

stranded hikers rescued by a life-saving iPhone feature
Stranded hikers were rescued by a life-saving iPhone feature that an awful lot of folks don't know a lot about.

The Inspiring Journey of Francis Tsai, Marvel Comics artist diagnosed with ALS
Francis Tsai, an American illustrator and conceptual artist who worked for Marvel Comics, was diagnosed with ALS in 2010. After he lost the ability to move his hands and arms, he started painting digitally on his cellphone with his right big toe. After he could not move his feet anymore, he began using eye-gaze technology to keep drawing.

chand baori stepwell in Rajasthan India, Ancient cooling technique
This Chand Baori stepwell in Rajasthan, India is over 1200 years old. It’s called Chand Baori. The air at the bottom of the well is 5-6 degrees cooler than at the surface, so in addition to being a water source, it was used as a community gathering place where locals could escape the heat.

Photos: This man sold everything 45 years ago to buy a bike and travel 6,000 miles from India to Sweden to see his love.
An Indian man traveled from India to Sweden on a bicycle to meet his Swedish wife in 1978. The journey took him 4 months and through eight countries.

Kenyan Innovator Creates Smart Gloves That Translate Sign Language Into Audible Speech
In 2023, a Kenyan inventor Roy Allela invented smart gloves that can convert sign language movements into audio speech, for his six years old niece who was born deaf.

Morgan’s Wonderland, the world’s first ultra-accessible amusement park
Gordon Hartman was heartbroken when his special needs daughter, Morgan, was rejected by a group of children playing by the hotel poolside. He then set out to build a place where all children can play together. This led to the development of the world’s first ultra-accessible amusement park, Morgan’s Wonderland

The Crystal Maiden of the Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave
Located in Belize, there is a cave where the remnants of ancient Maya human sacrifices can be witnessed. However, reaching the back of the cave system requires swimming, wading through a cave river, and crawling through narrow, uneven rocky passages in darkness. Once there, visitors can walk among the numerous corpses of sacrifice victims, including The Crystal Maiden, an 18-year-old whose skeleton has become calcified to the point of sparkling.

Apple Watch saves a 78 year old man from life threatening fall
An Apple watch saved the life of a 78-year-old man from North Carolina. When the man was unconscious and collapsed on his driveway, his Apple watch quickly sent an alert to emergency services.

Before Hollywood, Christopher Walken Was a Teenage Lion Tamer with a Lioness Named Sheba
Before acting, Christopher Walken worked as a lion tamer in a circus at age 16. He performed with a lioness named Sheba and described the job as surprisingly calm—just another day before Hollywood stardom.

Croatian teenager wakes up from coma speaking fluent in German In 2010
In 2010, a Croatian teenager awoke from a coma to discover she could no longer speak Croatian but was fluent in German, a language she had just recently begun studying at school in the United Kingdom. reports in the press

Story of Forrest Fenn and who he hid a bronze chest treasure full of gold and other jewels
Forrest Fenn, an art dealer, hid a bronze chest full of gold and other jewels somewhere in the Rocky Mountains ten years ago. In a poem, he hinted at its location. Thousands of people tried and failed to find the treasure, which is said to be worth over a million dollars, and at least four people died in the process. In June 2020, the Fenn treasure was discovered.

Self-taught William Kamkwamba built a windmill for his town
A Malawian teenager who taught himself how to build a windmill out of junk and bring power to his village. He then went on to build a second, larger windmill to power irrigation pumps. He did this all from books he read in the library.

Restaurant owner offers burglar a job rather than filing charges
On April 13, 2021, Diablo’s Southwest Grill was robbed, but instead of pressing charges, owner Carl Wallace decided to offer the burglar a job in his business and said “There are better opportunities out there than this path you’ve chosen,”.

The WWII Parachute Wedding Dress
Major Claude Hensinger jumped out of a B-29 bomber during World War II when the engine caught fire. He was saved by his parachute. Later, he requested that his fiancée Ruth make him a gown out of the same parachute. The dress is now on display at the Smithsonian Institute.

ILOVEYOU Virus, the worst computer virus of all time
The ILOVEYOU Virus, also known as Love Letter for You or Love Bug, had a high infection rate due to its ability to spread itself by copying entries from users' email address books. It is a virus that was created in 2000 by a college student in Manilla, Philippines, and was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the worst computer virus of all time, causing more damage than anything before it.

New York installs first offshore wind turbine to power 70,000 homes
New York State has achieved a historic milestone in its clean energy transition by installing the first wind turbine at its first offshore wind farm, South Fork Win.