As a reminder: The oldest person in the world is the Japanese Kane Tanaka, who turned 118 in January.
By the time it was born, the Livermore incandescent lamp was almost two years old.
That was more than a number of modern incandescent lamps reached their lifetime.
The Livermore lamp survived the First and Second World Wars, and it continued to flicker cheerfully through the Cold War.
Until the physicist Debora Katz from the US Naval Academy became aware of the strange light bulb in the 21st century.
Katz wanted to reveal the secret of the mysterious light that had been produced at the end of the 19th century.
But the disappointment was great at first.
Adolphe Chaillet, creator of the lamp, had left no meaningful documents.
The investigation also turned out to be complicated.
Katz's research team was not allowed to open the glass housing of the lightbulb in order not to destroy the antique.
After all, the physicists discovered that the filament of the Livermore lamp is not only made of coal, but is also eight times as thick as that of later incandescent lamps.
But have the scientists really come across the formula of eternal life?
Once a bland commodity, the oldest light bulb in the world has now become an attraction that attracts tourists and school classes.
It is still dangling from the ceiling as it has always been.
Doesn't the good piece belong in a museum display case?
Tom Bramell, once the chief fire officer at Livermore, has his own opinion: “It has long been discussed how to protect the lamp.
My best recommendation has always been: leave her alone!
Apparently she doesn't need our help «.
Have a nice weekend
your
Frank Thadeusz
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Abstract
My reading recommendations this week:
If your partner falls asleep on the couch again tonight while they are still in a chatty mood, there is now hope: researchers at the university have now found that sleepers can still communicate.
Impressive photo documentation by SPIEGEL colleagues about homeless people who were particularly hard hit by fate during the corona pandemic.
No less impressive pictures from the "New York Times" of people in Texas who actually have a home - and still have to freeze because the responsible federal government has failed to provide energy.
Do dogs really freeze in winter?
Or is it just our guilty conscience towards the creature that we also put our four-legged friends in robes?
Quiz*
1. Who was the inventor of the first commercial light bulb?
a) Thomas Alva Edison
b) Walther Osram
c) Heinrich Göbels
2. What is the name of the running comic light bulb that is always at the service of the Entenhausen inventor Daniel Düsentrieb?
a) Stand-up man
b) little helpers
c) Hans Dampf
3. What does the name "Osram" stand for?
a) For the inventor Glühlampe, Walther Osram
b) For the Lithuanian city of the same name, where the light bulb was invented in 1874
c) For an artificial word made up of the terms osmium and tungsten
* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.
Picture of the week
Icon: enlarge Photo: Christian Lünig
A light like that of 10,000 suns
on earth is generated by 149 high-performance spotlights, which the German Aerospace Center
lights up
under the name Synlight in Jülich.
Humans themselves can only endure the rays of this light spectacle reflected from the walls for a moment.
The photographer Christian Lünig succeeded in taking this photo of the test laboratory, which has now been awarded a prize by the Royal Photographic Society from Bristol.
Recommendations from science
Controversial Vaccine:
Fear of AstraZeneca can have dangerous consequences
Sequencing of corona samples:
where are people actually infected?
Inexperienced pilots and their mistakes:
"Our first flight in weeks, we both felt a bit rusty"
Traffic researchers demand more safety:
Tempo 30 everywhere - for grandma and grandpa
* Quiz answers
1a) Edison brought the first patented incandescent lamp onto the market.
The German watchmaker Heinrich Göbels was wrongly considered to be the inventor of the incandescent lamp.
Walther Osram never existed in connection with the creation of light bulbs.
2b) Little helper
3c) Osram is a combination of the terms osmium and tungsten