Centennial Bulb – Livermore, California - Atlas Obscura
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Centennial Bulb

Fire Station 6
Livermore, California

The longest burning light bulb in the world. 

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108 years and counting. centennialbulb.org
108 years and counting. centennialbulb.org
The bulb hangs in the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department. centennialbulb.org
Wikimedia (Creative Commons)
vomsorb/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Fire station sign jddarcy (Atlas Obscura User)
Centennial Bulb, April 2019 jddarcy (Atlas Obscura User)
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With only a few brief exceptions, the light bulb hanging in Fire Station 6 in Livermore, California, has burned continuously since 1903 straight.

It wasn’t until 1972 that a local reporter first took note of the unusually long-lived bulb. News of its existence spread, and the bulb soon appeared on On the Road with Charles Kuralt and in the Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

The bulb has been moved a few times, once unceremoniously (it was only two years old) in 1903, and then with much more pomp in 1976 when it was transferred with a full police and fire truck escort to its present site. The bulb is now cared for by the Centennial Light Bulb Committee. 

You can check if the bulb is still going on a live camera feed on the Centennial Bulb’s website.

Update as of July 2021: Visitors are no longer allowed inside to see the bulb.

Update as of December 2022: Visits are allowed again.

Know Before You Go

See the website for opening hours.

world's oldest fire fighters electricity electrical oddities
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