
Centennial Light - pionerkotik
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light
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kylek
Highly recommend you read the (hilarious and long) 17776[0]; the bulb is a big
part of the story.

[0]
[https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football](https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football)

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errantspark
I cannot recommend 17776 highly enough. It is absolutely one of the best
pieces of art that I've experienced in the past decade.

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tgb
I agree. I never would have imagined calling a multimedia piece ostensibly
about football the greatest work of art from the 21st century that I've seen
but, well, it just is.

Go experience it for yourself without knowing anything more, if you haven't
already.

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amelius
I'd recommend following the link to the Phoebus cartel page.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel)

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ars
The cartel required 1,000 hour lifetimes, but do note that they could not do
anything about the physical reality that higher lifetime = lower energy
efficiency.

People talk about it sometimes as if they made bulbs worse, but they didn't.

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carapace
> the physical reality that higher lifetime = lower energy efficiency

I don't usually do this, but uh, _citation needed_?

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ars
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#Light_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#Light_output_and_lifetime)

Higher temperature = higher efficiency, but also lower life.

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carapace
Thanks!

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dang
Thread from 2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8353200](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8353200)

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ars
Just reminding everyone that you can trade energy efficiency for lifetime.

This bulb produces basically no light, i.e. very poor efficiency, so the
lifetime is very high.

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fortran77
Aren't new incandescent fixtures illegal in California? I wasn't able to put
any in my new construction. Since this was moved to a new firehouse, I'm
wondering how the permits were legally signed off by the inspector.

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ars
It's not really a light, if you saw it your would think it's a space heater.

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esaym
So what is different about this bulb versus a regular filament one I can get
at wal-mart? And more importantly... where can I buy one at?

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jedimastert
Fairly little, actually. The main difference you'd see is:

1) It's a 30-watt bulb, so I'd be a lot darker than you'd be used to/would be
usable

2) It's gotten even darker, so it would be almost completely useless by now.

3) Because of the lower wattage, it's basically been used more gently than any
bulb you'd use now-a-days

Basically, you'd probably replace it about as soon as the current ones
anyways.

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Nextgrid
Regarding point 2, anyone knows why it became darker? Furthermore in the
Wikipedia page they mention that when the lamp lost power for some time, it
became much brighter a short time after it was powered up before dimming
again. Can anyone explain that? I'd expect it to be the opposite, where the
hotter the filament gets the more light it produces.

