another bulb story

[Otto Sell]

Some years ago a friend of mine vanished in the Middle-American jungles of
Costa Rica but before he went he gave me a present for sharing some time of
his wild life, a desktop-lamp that he had built himself out of waste
electrical parts during his apprenticeship. He had never read Pynchon but
wanted an immortal bulb and a lamp that didn't cost him any money. ...

So he used a nine-volt car bulb but never gives it nine volts, only eight or
7.5, and you can switch the lamp to 6 volts to dim it.
It was burning at his workplace for years before I got it and now it's
already burning here for ten years, the same bulb definitely burns for more
than 25 years now.

With a little "Vorwiderstand" (a little electric resistance) you can make
your car bulbs live forever.

This highly-arrogant guy had been the one who had said that "it's hard to
stay around as a genius with all those fools in the world." At last he
proved to be the biggest fool of all.

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Appelbaum <brucea at bestweb.net>
To: s~Z <keith at pfmentum.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 7:24 PM
Subject: Re: another bulb story


> It is possible for an incandescent bulb to burn for that long -- it is
generally
> the shock to the filament at start-up that causes the burn-out.
>
> >http://cgi.cnn.com/TECH/9703/25/longest.lasting.bulb/
> >
> >A 96-year-old light bulb: It's still going
> > March 25, 1997
> >Web posted at: 11:43 p.m. EST (0443 GMT)
> >From Correspondent Don Knapp
> >
> >LIVERMORE, California (CNN) -- It is no great surprise that the fire bell
at
>
> >the Livermore Fire Station, installed in 1876, still works.
> >But, surprise! So does the fire station's nightlight, a
turn-of-the-century
>
> >light bulb that Chief Lynn Owens claims has been burning practically
nonstop
>
> >since 1901.
> >
> >also: http://www.snopes.com/spoons/noose/lightbul.htm
> >
> >
> >