Lighting tips | Lighting Trivia | Safety & Longevity
Lighting Trivia
- The first lamp was invented around 70,000 BC. A hollow rock, shell or other natural-found object was filled with moss, soaked with animal fat and ignited
- 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the first light bulb, but Joseph Swan developed a carbon-filament incandescent lamp in 1860, almost 20 years before Edison.
- Though Edison didn't invent the first light bulb, he did invent one that stayed lit for more than a few seconds.
- American, Peter Cooper Hewitt patented the mercury vapor lamp (fluorescent) in 1901.
- Georges Claude of France invented the neon lamp in 1911.
- Early in their history, Christmas lights were so expensive that they were more commonly rented than sold. An electrically lighted tree was a status symbol in the early 1900s.
- The most expensive lamp ever auctioned was a Tiffany Lotus lamp for $2.8 million.
- The world's largest lightbulb is 13' tall, weighs 8 tons and is illuminated at night at Menlo Park, NJ, where Edison invented his light bulb.
- The World's largest lamp was finished on July 1, 2000. The lamp stands 42 ft high and 17 ft wide at the base.
- There are 2.1 million lights on display at Las Vegas' Fremont Street Experience.
- In 1881 Godalming (U.K.) became the first city in the world to boast electric street lighting.
- The world's first neon sign went up in 1912 in a Paris barbershop.
- The first neon sign in America was lit in 1923 at a Los Angeles Packard auto dealership.
- In 1901, the longest burning light bulb was first lit in Livermore, CA. It still burns today and is now located in Pleasanton, CA Fire Station # 6. It has been burning for over 900,000 hours!
- The Empire State Building houses 880 vertical and 220 horizontal 75 watt fluorescent tubes that shine atop the building in the mooring mast.
- The Statue of Liberty was the first lighthouse to use electricity in 1886.
