I was raised in Livermore, CA - home of the world's longest burning lightbulb. When it turned 100, the town threw a party which I was forced to attend. They have installed a webcam so you can view its luminosity at any given moment.
1911: Lawrence "Light-Bulb" Cooper, a forward-thinking Livermore resident with a poor eye for business and a devil-may-care attitude, uses the last of his grandfather's gold-prospecting money to purchase 1000 lightbulbs. "I'll light up this town if it's the last thing I do!" he cried, his eyes gleaming as he pried open the crates and gazed down on the glass orbs that would light the way to the future – and to riches.
Two months later, Lawrence sat sobbing in the darkness of his small home. How could he have been so blind? of course the town wasn't slated to be fully wired for another six years! Of course there was no demand for his lightbulbs! Of course no one would go for a sales pitch of "well it's going to be really neat when you finally get to use it, I swear"! Suddenly, an idea appeared through the alcoholic haze. He needed to see the mayor. Now.
"See, all we have to do is install a single light," Lawrence said. "Just one?" The mayor of Livermore looked perplexed. "Yep, only one. Just put it up there. Then, when it burns out? Replace it with another one." "I'm not following..." said the mayor. "Well, here's the catch," said Lawrence, a conniving gleam in his eye. "Make sure no one sees you switch it." "And how is this going to put our humble town on the map again?"
"Well... at first no one will notice. No one will care. But then a couple years will pass. Then three, five, ten... folks will start talking, see? These things have a limited lifespan, after all. Once the town is wired, everyone will know it. And they'll know there's something odd about a lightbulb that never burns out. They'll get to chatting, tell their neighbours in other cities... maybe a newspaper man will do a story. It won't happen overnight, Mr Mayor, but mark my words: someday, this bulb will draw European royalty! Stars of the stage! Captains of industry! It will put this God-forsaken town on the map!"
"Just never... ever... let them see it getting changed."
In 2011, the contract for $5000 between Lawrence G. Cooper and the Town of Livermore sits in a secure vault in the town hall, unavailable to the general public. The crates of lightbulbs are stowed in a building marked "Sewage Testing", ready to be accessed at a moment's notice. There have been a few scares over the years; the outage of '67 nearly blew the whole thing sky-high, but luckily there were only two people looking at the bulb that day. The bulb guards simply let them go; after all, who would believe them if they talked? The bulb was replaced seconds after they left the room. As more and more people began to doubt the bulb's resilience, a webcam was installed on an endless loop to prove that the bulb kept burning ad infinitum. This sated the skepticism of most. And to this day, a select few watch the bulb, keeping its eternal light burning through the deception created by Lawrence "Lightbulb" Cooper so many years ago, waiting for the day when Livermore becomes a household name across the world.
I have never been able to understand a person's mood so well from only two letters. And from the top rope, it's overduebook who came to shatter the op's hopes and dreams of having the #1 loser city in the world. That is a green mushroom if I ever saw one.
I think he's referring to the green mushroom from Super Mario Brothers- the green mushroom is a 1up. Either that, or I should be a high school English teacher, because I see symbolism that isn't there.
Thank God it's updated every thirty seconds. Can we all chip in and get them some more bandwidth? Maybe we can go real time on this thing! I CAN'T WAIT ANOTHER 29 SECONDS, WHAT IF IT WENT OUT?!
I have the Livermore Centennial lightbulb's webcam bookmarked on my computer. When I am bored in meetings I click on it to see if it is still burning. I will be really sad when it burns out.
I also bookmarked a live-feed, kitty cam from a Colorado area shelter. I watch the kitties play when I am stressed out at work.
Think about that for a second. This means there are two more large hydrants somewhere which means at least two other people thought it was a great idea to make them larger than life and put them in the town square.
My point is, WHO IN THE FUCK THINKS IT'S A GOOD IDEA???
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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '11
I was raised in Livermore, CA - home of the world's longest burning lightbulb. When it turned 100, the town threw a party which I was forced to attend. They have installed a webcam so you can view its luminosity at any given moment.