Light Bulbs for Dummies

Our staffers report that every once in a great while, they learn something new from the posts they page through while looking for nominees. When that happens, it's rare for the post to qualify for the DotD award despite the new information but it does happen sometimes. That's what happened today, if truth be told: one of our staffers picked up some new information from Jared Lewis and his HomeSteady.com post, "What Would Make a New Light Bulb Keep Blowing Out in a Kitchen Exhaust Fan?" In reality, he learned it indirectly: Lewis cited a website that contained accurate information... but his post didn't.

The information in question comes from another website where the author (a professional handyman) explained that it's possible to over-tighten light bulbs, bending the contact within the socket to a point where it doesn't make firm contact with the bulb. The light flickers, over-stressing the filament with frequent on-off cycles, and making it "burn out" prematurely. Lewis found that information and shared some of it...

...and got some of it wrong. We're specifically thinking of this section of his post:

"Each light bulb should be screwed in to a point at which its tip touches a tiny filament that conducts electricity, sending it into the bulb."

No, Jared, there's no "tiny filament": the filament is inside the bulb. What your source was discussing was, to use their exact words, a "brass tab at base of socket." If that gets flattened by overenthusiastic bulb installers, subsequent bulbs may not make a clean contact and thus flicker while in use. Alternatively, a tiny arc between bulb and contact may melt a hole in the solder at the base of the bulb, allowing air to enter what is supposed to be a vacuum and thus causing the bulb to burn out. This latter is, apparently, what Lewis meant by this reword job:

"The impact is a small electrical arc that creates extreme heat and begins to melt the soldering [sic]."

He left out the whole part about causing bulbs to burn out, in favor of 103 words of canned bushwa about safety, such as telling his readers to wear rubber gloves while screwing in light bulbs "to prevent electric shock."

Yeah, sure... we're gonna take electrical safety suggestions from some twerp who "has completed doctoral work in American history," also known as today's Dumbass of the Day.

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