I once had a 135w
incandescent screw
base house light just decide it was done and the glass
bulb portion came free from the
socket and fell to the floor. It was pretty cool to see, just glad no one was sitting there and it was after most of the audience had left from a concert.
TLDR Warning firmly in place;
1968 or 9; Multi-year renovation and expansion of a local hospital. They added a new, much larger, staff cafeteria. Ceiling fixtures were each about 2' square, mirrored glass, approximately 16
clear, candelabra based, globular, ornate 15 or 25
Watt lamps per
fixture and about 30 fixtures in the room. Finished ceiling height maybe 10'. When we were about two days away from turning over that
wing, the foreman sent two of us in to remove all protective materials, polish all of the mirrored surfaces and lamp all of the fixtures warning us to be sure our hands were clean and not to leave grubby fingerprints all over the place. Roughly 480 lamps. It took a while.
We were given lots of Windex and clean cloths and the other guys harangued us for grabbing the "white glove" work. Maybe an hour in, my journeyman decided we should
power up one of the dimmers and see how things were looking. He noticed we had several lamps 'DOA' and suffering 'infant mortality'. One of the sub-foremen came by and suggested we'd save time by setting all of the dimmers at 25-30% and leave them there so we'd know if we had a 'DOA' lamp the instant we installed it and could save the time of dragging the ladder back. It was pretty slow going, the day was rolling by, things were looking good and we figured we had enough lamps within the 10% mandatory spares to complete the room then have the lamp supplier supply additional lamps to turn over to the client. Got to the end of the day and we were asked to put in an hour of O.T. to reach completion so the cleaning contractor's overnight crew could do a final construction cleanup and the furnishings contractor could
load in his snazzy new cafeteria tables and chairs the next morning.
Got it finished, looked dazzlingly elegant. Journeyman sent me for the sub-foreman. Sub-foreman sent me for the foreman. Much patting of backs and happiness all around. Foreman announced his approval and told us to turn 'em off and
call it a day. Someone shut 'em down and within seconds
clear glass envelopes rained down on the floor with the majority of them shattering having just fallen 10' to the tile. Many had hit the floor while others were hanging wobbling, hung on the exposed
filament structures. Much unhappiness. Much pointing of fingers. It was after dinner hour and getting darker so someone began turning on the remaining lights. 'Nova-ing' of exposed filaments. Several globes that had been hanging were now plummeting. More unhappiness. Even more finger pointing. crap moved slowly up hill. The lamp supplier's rep' was phoned at home mid-dinner. We were finally sent home. First thing next morning, while the furnishings were loading in and making ladder access problematic, various levels of management from owner's rep's to architects, yada, yada, arrived to flog the lamp supplier. The remaining lamps were once again lit, initially at reduced levels, and then raised slowly over a period of time to full under the supplier's rep's direction. Much speculation as to the cause of the problem. The semi-knowledgeable all had an opinion. The most knowledgeable kept their mouths closed. The mystery became why did so many die while others refused to fail no matter how bright or how long? We had to move tables and collect various samples, both of functioning lamps and globe-less candelabra bases. The supplier, Sylvania possibly, needed time to analyze the remnants in their labs and conjure an answer / solution. The immediate problem became what are we to re-lamp the fixtures with in time for the grand soire only days away. The supplier did not have enough
stock in the area to re-lamp the room and no one wanted to eat the cost of the re-lamping even if they did. The supplier wanted at least a week. The owners and their fundraisers wanted their show-piece room for their fancy opening for their financial contributors.
I can't remember the exact details but I believe we lamped every second
socket (as it was all they could provide in time) with frosted lamps which the supplier had in
stock, and felt could be trusted to not fall in the caviar, then went back to that
wing more than a month later to re-lamp the entire room with the specified,
clear, lamps. It took longer this time with all of the furnishings in the room and having to do a portion of the room at a time so the doctors and surgeons could eat their meals while we were working.
Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ontario with one entire wall glass from floor to ceiling and overlooking Lake Ontario. The hospital's still there. It's been renovated at least twice more over the years and they're expanding again as I type. Unfortunately I've been seeing too much of it lately, these last few times as a patient.
Oh, the lamps!? They deemed it dissimilar rates of expansion / contraction when heating and cooling. Some lamps bases had been formed from brass, or similar, while others had been formed from aluminum. They found both
base materials had held up when initially tested but cooled / contracted at different rates. They had the
base, the glue and the glass. One material / combination worked as designed / expected while the other combination cut perfect little circular holes in the
clear glass globes upon cooling. I believe that particular room disappeared
in one of the successive renovations.
I still remember the sounds of those initial lamps hitting the tiles like a hail storm.
With apologies for droning on.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.