Electrifying discovery lights up history books
AN ILLUMINATING discovery means a retired electrician could be the owner of Britain's oldest working lightbulb – which is still glowing strong after more than 100 years.
AN ILLUMINATING discovery means a retired electrician could be the owner of Britain's oldest working lightbulb – which is still glowing strong after more than 100 years.Roy Fisher (78) made the incredible find while renovating a house, and dug it out of storage after the owner of another ancient bulb appeared in a national newspaper laying claim to the record.
Mo Richardson, from the Isle of Wight, may still get a glow out of her 70-year-old lightbulb, but it is positively youthful compared to the one belonging to the Spalding great-grandfather.
It is thought his lightbulb was made as early as 1895 – only 15 years after its invention by Thomas Edison in 1880.
"It's incredible to think it still works after all this time," said Roy, of Campbell Close, Little London.
"These days they don't last six months, I don't know about 100 years or more."
Roy discovered the bulb in the cellar of a house he was converting into flats in 1982 in Margate, Kent, along with another one thought to date back to 1920.
He said: "Both of the bulbs were welded into the sockets, so I cut them down and eventually, with a little persuasion, managed to get them out.
"I knew one of them was an Edison because it had a distinctive little pimple on the end and had Edison's name on it, so I was keen to find out how old it was."
After turning down a request to donate it to a local electricity board's museum, Roy took it to the auction house Sotheby's for advice.
He said: "They said it was impossible to date it exactly but gave me a period of between 1895 and 1905. I brought them home, put some padding around them and then put them in a box, and I have had them for the last 25 years.
"That was as far as I went with it until I saw the article in the paper about the bulb that was still working after 70 years.
"Although I didn't have a precise date, I knew mine was considerably older than that."
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Tuesday 16 March 2010
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