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American Morning

California Lightbulb Celebrates Centennial

Aired June 08, 2001 - 11:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: The "Guinness Book of Records (sic)" recognizes it as the longest-burning lightbulb in the world. It's a four-watt bulb serving as a night-light at fire station No. 6 in Livermore, California. And get this: It's been burning for an entire century, if you can believe it; 100 years this little pup's been going.

Joining us to tell us all about it is Chief Stewart Gary of the Livermore, California Fire Department.

Chief Gary, nice to have you joining us. It's still burning as we speak, right?

CHIEF STEWART GARY, LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA FIRE DEPARTMENT: Good morning Donna, and welcome to Livermore.

And of course it's still burning. This is the little engine that could. It's still going into its centennial year, and no one knows just how long it's going to last.

KELLEY: And it's never gone out; you're sure?

GARY: We are sure. It's been moved three times in its history. The longest it was out was for about 24 minutes in 1976, when it was carefully restored to power here in this newer fire station.

KELLEY: And you know there will be some people who might say, well, are you sure somebody didn't go in there and change it?

GARY: We're pretty sure. It was originally donated by the old Livermore Power and Light Company to the volunteer firefighters in 1901. If you hear the siren in the background, that's a ladder truck leaving on a medical call. And after it was donated, it hung in two of the old volunteer firehouses, was recognized by a meter reader to be old, brought indoors, and then in the early 1970s was researched historically with people that were still alive at the turn of the century.

So we have a very good oral history on the bulb, and a curator at the Smithsonian has verified that, in fact, it's a late-1890s Shelby, Ohio -- Shelby Electric Company bulb.

KELLEY: Well, that's good, because I was going to ask you for a little bit of a history, and the proof. And people can actually come visit you and the little bulb?

GARY: You bet you. We have a new Web site, www.centennialbulb.org, and we even have a Web cam. Slightly better than watching paint dry, but you can watch the bulb glow evermore in Livermore.

KELLEY: And then can they come during office hours, as I see, too?

GARY: Of course. Any time that they can find the office open or the fire crew in quarters. We've had visitors from all over the world sign the guest book. And the Web site now, especially in the last 48 hours, we're receiving hits from as far away as Italy and New Zealand.

KELLEY: And I see that you're going to have a little commemoration ceremony. You're going to have a barbecue and a few thing like that to...

GARY: We're -- yes. We're going to have the centennial birthday party tonight. We received a letter in the last couple of days from President Bush at the White House, and we've been in "Guinness" and CBS and the other majors, now CNN have all covered the little Livermore bulb.

And tonight we're going to sing happy birthday to a glass bulb.

KELLEY: You know, I just almost hate to ask, but what are you going to do when it burns out?

GARY: It's not going to burn out on my watch. All my predecessors have said that, and hopefully it goes on many more decades.

KELLEY: Well, we hope the same thing, and have fun at the celebration. And we're sure glad that you could come to visit with us, Chief Stewart Gary of Livermore, California.

GARY: Thank you, Donna.

KELLEY: Thank you.

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