In a long-ago blog post (that I can’t even find in archive.org), I remarked on the Livermore Centennial Light Bulb that is still burning after 106 years, and I wondered what technology that we use today will still be plugged in and running a hundred years from now.

One of my favorite effective TV ads was for Philips Marathon light bulbs. In the span of 30 seconds a college freshman arrives at his dorm room, and the first thing he does is screw in his Philips light bulb. Four years of college ensue, then graduation, then he packs up his dorm, unscrews his light bulb, and leaves. I can’t seem to find this ad online either, but you get the idea, and I would tend to believe them.

I thought of these when a light bulb burned out at my house recently. When I removed the glass globe and unscrewed the bulb, I read “Handicapped Workers – Long Life". We bought those bulbs before we moved into this house 20 years ago. I was skeptical when my wife bought them, but I didn’t have the kind of critical information sources (other than this) that we have today that might have convinced me one way or the other. I replaced the bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb that is supposed to last over 12,000 hours (compared to 4,000 for the old bulb, or 750 for a standard incandescent). I’ll let you know when I have to change it, if our archive is working as it should.

The recently-passed U.S. Energy bill phases out the sales of incandescent bulbs by 2014. I can already see the entry in the Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2036: "They never saw an incandescent light bulb for sale." Which brings me to one last question. When you learn something, does the light bulb go on or does the light bulb go off? Spellweb gives the edge to the light bulb going on, but only by a 3:1 margin. So it depends on whom you ask:

"That’s the beauty of teaching, watching the light bulb come on. When you help a student grasp a difficult concept they’ve been struggling with, it’s the best feeling in the world." - Lois Kreitzer-Housler, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford

or

"Seeing the light bulb go off in a student’s eyes when a key concept or idea is understood makes all of the preparation worthwhile." - Stephen Jones, St. Edward's University