How many RPCAers does it take to change a light bulb?

"Trish" wrote in message


This is off topic, please read your FAQ (Sherry can e-mail it to you)
and add OT to the subject line ///

Ummmm, you do know that Yowie actually WROTE the FAQ, don't you? See
6.1.2 of the FAQ below...

6.1.5 Darn it, half these posts aren't even about cats!

That's what happens when friends start to have a conversation - you can
start on one topic, and the conversation drifts so far that within 10
minutes you are talking about something else entirely and you didn't
even notice the change.

Occasionally people notice and put an [OT] in the subject line to
signify that the post is Off Topic (ie, not about cats), but not always.
Just think of this group as a bunch of people that became friends
because of their cats. It makes it easier to understand the style and
content of the posts, particularly the ones that are technically off
topic. Would you tell one of your friends to shut up if he just
announced his engagement?



Helen M


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

Helen Miles wrote:
Occasionally people notice and put an [OT] in the subject line to
signify that the post is Off Topic (ie, not about cats), but not always.
Just think of this group as a bunch of people that became friends
because of their cats. It makes it easier to understand the style and
content of the posts, particularly the ones that are technically off
topic. Would you tell one of your friends to shut up if he just
announced his engagement?
Helen M

Not as long as the engagement was to a cat

wrote in message
ups.com...


1. Is it true that if you never turn a light bulb off, it will never
burn out.
2. Is it true that those light bulbs that claim to last 10 years,
really do last 10 years? If so, then why don't they make all of them
like that?

1. I have heard about a bulb that has been burning constantly since 1930's.
It was an article about it in a local newspaper in Norway some years ago.
2. When I was a child, my father told me (he was an electrical engineer)
that the bulb factory LUMA in Sweden managed to produce an ever-lasting
bulb. They never started a mass production of it, because who will undermine
their own business in such a stupid manner? The need for changing bulbs from
time to time is what these manufacturers live from!

Hans

Hans Schr=F8der wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
1. Is it true that if you never turn a light bulb off, it will never
burn out.
2. Is it true that those light bulbs that claim to last 10 years,
really do last 10 years? If so, then why don't they make all of them
like that?

1. I have heard about a bulb that has been burning constantly since 1930'=
s=2E
It was an article about it in a local newspaper in Norway some years ago.
2. When I was a child, my father told me (he was an electrical engineer)
that the bulb factory LUMA in Sweden managed to produce an ever-lasting
bulb. They never started a mass production of it, because who will underm=
ine
their own business in such a stupid manner? The need for changing bulbs f=
rom
time to time is what these manufacturers live from!

Hans

That's the truth. There was a company that made pumps for swimming
pools. Brass pumps. When a pump goes bad, it's expensive, drain the
pool and so on. The company went out of business because their pumps
never went bad and never needed maintenance.

Planned obsolesence used to be the keyword for the day.

With the cost of electricity, it's getting much cheaper to change the
bulb and just concentrate on the electricity which is getting
expensive. I'm starting to look into solar panels or a little wind
generator or maybe a cat treadmill so she earns her daily light! Now
that I like and with compact fluorescents, the amount of electricity is
not that much. And less coal being burned and less oil and less nuclear
power waste. So there.

"Hans Schrøder" wrote
1. I have heard about a bulb that has been burning constantly since
1930's. It was an article about it in a local newspaper in Norway some
years ago.

Further to that, in the 1970's I read that a bulb in a Fire Station
(Firehouse?)
in San Francisco had been burning continuously since either 1906 or 1910
(don't recall which).

Does anyone know if it's still going, or how old it was when it expired?

Purrs

Gordon & the FF

umm.... That would probably need to be posted under an 'Alternative
Lifstyle' NG.... And if it did'nt work out, who gets
the...er...'kids'?

Mathew, Chablis & Muscat

wrote in message
ups.com...

Christina Websell wrote:

Anyone want to know a lot about light bulbs? I can tell you more than
you
ever wanted as I used to work for a manufacturer of them for 17 years.
They
are not actually called light bulbs in the trade, they are called
*lamps*
Any more anyone? ;-)

Tweed

waves hand wildly Ms. Tweed!! Pick me!! Pick me!!

1. Is it true that if you never turn a light bulb off, it will never
burn out.

No, not exactly! I know why the rumour has got about though, it's because
household lamps often go "ping" and die at the moment you switch them on.
We called this "failed on switching." It's to do with how delicate the
filament is. Frequent switching on/off will shorten a lamp's life because
it stresses the filament. OTOH, ordinary run of the mill cheap "light
bulbs" are/or were at that time designed to last 1,000 hours, so if you
leave them on continuously they will reach their end of their life more
quickly.
So if you pop upstairs to the bathroom, don't bother to switch off your
downstairs light and put it back on a few minutes later ;-)

2. Is it true that those light bulbs that claim to last 10 years,
really do last 10 years?

Yes, they do.


If so, then why don't they make all of them
like that?

Because they are less attractive to look at and cost more to buy. Another
slight disadvantage is that this type do not always illuminate instantly but
increase light over a minute or two. I wouldn't recommend their use, for
example, on the stairs.

Tweed

Mathew Kagis wrote:
umm.... That would probably need to be posted under an 'Alternative
Lifstyle' NG.... And if it did'nt work out, who gets
the...er...'kids'?

Mathew, Chablis & Muscat

You meant the _kits_, right? Miaow.

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

Anyone want to know a lot about light bulbs? I can tell you more than
you ever wanted as I used to work for a manufacturer of them for 17
years. They are not actually called light bulbs in the trade, they are
called *lamps*
Any more anyone? ;-)

Yeah.... what is the alloy used for the filament - tungsten and what else?

Bear in mind that I left the industry in 1989. At that time we used
tungsten.

And is it true that the bulbs are filled with argon?

Yes, or at least some are.

Is it regular glass or
heat resistant glass that htey use? How do they manufacture the bulbs so
that hte glass is so thin?

I can't answer this, I never saw or learnt about them doing the "glass bit"
sorry.

Are "lamps" specifically designed to burn out at
"x" time, or is that just the way it is?

They are not "designed" to burn out at x hours in order to make everyone
need to buy more lamps, if that's what you mean! It's just the average life
of a cheapie household lamp, and I can buy them here for 50/60p is 1,000
hours.

At the factory I worked at, which employed more than 2,000 people, we made
the more unusual lamps. Neon, krypton, mercury vapour lamps, photographic,
film studio (megabucks to buy, these last two) sodium, fluorescent, halogen.
etc etc.

Household lamps were made at the factory in Merthyr Tydfil.

I shall now shut up as I am in danger of getting to be an anorak about
this.. g

Tweed





Yowie

"PatM" wrote in message
ups.com...
Actually, yes...I was wondering about those full-spectrum bulbs. What
is different about how they are made? Are the ones you can buy at Home
Depot the same as they use in light boxes. Those are expensive, and
I've always wondered if the consumer is paying all that just for the
box part. Just curious!

PatM


I left the lighting industry in 1987. Seasonal Affective Disorder had not
been invented then! We did grow-lites for plants, which were fairly full
spectrum, if left on 24/7 or at least 16/24 designed to grow plants in a
loft with no light, or something like.
Maybe they would work? I don't really know.

I still keep in touch with a couple of my colleagues from there on an
irregular 4 times a year- ish basis, and I was extremely touched to get a
bag of "everything you might need to go into hospital" from a former
colleague. Nightshirt, slippers, flannel, hand towel, shampoo, soap,
toothpaste, toothbrush, toiletry bag. I was so touched, I had a few tears.

Tweed