144- There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

99% Invisible

SiriusXM Podcasts and Roman Mars

Design, Arts

4.8 • 27.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2014

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hanging in the garage of Fire Station #6 in Livermore, California, there’s a small, pear-shaped light bulb. It is glowing right now. This lightbulb has been glowing, with just a couple of momentary interruptions, for 113 years.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is 99% invisible.
0:02.6	I'm Roman Mars.
0:04.6	About an hour east of Oakland
0:06.6	in the town of Livermore, California,
0:08.6	hanging in the garage of Fire Station number six.
0:11.4	There's a small, pear-shaped light bulb.
0:14.0	The light bulb is on.
0:15.5	Right now, it's glowing,
0:17.1	and it's been glowing.
0:18.3	It's just a couple of momentary interruptions
0:21.2	for 113 years.
0:24.0	Oh, there it is.
0:26.0	We're looking at the longest burning,
0:27.8	longest continuously burning light bulb.
0:29.8	In the world, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records.
0:32.4	And it was installed in 1901.
0:34.9	We send our producer, Katie Mingle,
0:36.4	out there to see the bulb,
0:37.4	which is a genuine heirloom
0:39.0	from the dawn of electric illumination,
0:41.2	built by one of its pioneers,
0:43.2	a guy named Adolf Chalet.
	...

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