Visit Titanic Competition

[Senan Molony]

I fear we may be straying from the point.

Inger's original question was how many Titanic researchers does it take to change a light bulb?

While it is a truism to say that many hands make light work, there has only ever been one researcher advocating a complete changeover.

Step forward then, and accept thy laurels, O electrical Switch King...

Ignoring the dimmer theories, the answer must be:

A. One - Robin Gardiner.

 

[Senan Molony]

Mind you, answering the most basic question doesn't obviate the natural human desire to find someone to blame.

I have waited a long time on this thread to see whether anyone would finger 'Saint' Arthur Rostron - one man, at least, with a permanent halo over his head.

It is not for nothing that Rostron was known as the 'Electric Spark.'

Is it too much to suggest that his famous 'power surge' that night may have been the real author of the calamity?

 

[Senan Molony]

I find it interesting that a solar eclipse should have happened on the same day as the extinguishment. (see bottom headline, arrowed).

It might make one imagine that somehow the bulb failure had been pre-ordained...

Am I right in thinking that there was just such a prediction made all the way back in 1898?

In a book called Utility?

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Many points to consider there, Senan. First the 'mystery house' on the horizon. I am neither a luminate nor an anti-luminate, and there is something to be said for that householder's plea that he wouldn't have been quite so confused "if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between" (the origin, of course, of the famous music hall ditty of that name). But surely a simple phone call could have revealed the seriousness of the situation, and brought tradesmen to the aid of the stricken house that much sooner? We shall never know the truth.

And that's the real tragedy. We still don't know for sure what happened that night. Hundreds of books and articles have been published, TV documentaries come and go, and the luminaries of Encyclopaedia Bulbica endlessly debate the issues in their forum, but we just don't know why that particular bulb expired on that particular night. Was it because the makers advertised their product as 'practically everlasting - even God couldn't blow this bulb!'. Was it the mummy in the cellar? We do not know.

But the victims did not endure their night of darkness in vain. We have learned that there is no such thing an ever-lasting bulb. Today all households keep a supply of spare bulbs for every room in the house (even the servant's quarters), all members of the household have received training in their replacement, and regular drills are conducted. Bulbs will always fail, but the world is now better prepared.
.

 

[Senan Molony]

quote:

But surely a simple phone call could have revealed the seriousness of the situation

I wouldn't be so sure that there may not have been a generalised electricity outage in that area, morse the pity...

Besides we don't know which houses had phones at that time.

I don't mean to pylon the pressure, but the reasons for the bulb failure must surely reside closer to home?

Just my lucence, as our American cousins like to observe.​

 

[Senan Molony]

Bob wrote:

quote:

Was it because the makers advertised their product as 'practically everlasting - even God couldn't blow this bulb!'

We know that this bulb differed in small degree from its slightly older sister in the next room - yet that bulb carried on for another 23 years.

So was there tinkering?

You always need a reliable installation - it cannot be that right that everyone keeps rushing to discuss potential wireless solutions...

(As you did a moment ago, Bob, bemoaning their absence.)

Of course you are entitled to your fuse, but I respectfully disagree.

We know instead that there *were* wires. I am convinced that the answer lies here.

Brown made the connection - the presence of the Deep Blue being the live issue.

Would it have happened at all if they had been properly earthed?

Of course not!​

 

[Bob Godfrey]

I don't want to denigrate the research that has gone into your wiring theory or Gardiner's switch theory, but to my mind this disaster had nowt to do with the fixtures and fittings and was due entirely to the brittle tungsten used to build the filament. James Cameron had top-notch technical advice from both historians and electricians when he wrote his hugely successfull screenplay Bulb. You will note the obvious authenticity of dialogue in dramatic scenes like this one:

"But this bulb can't blow!"
"It is made of tungsten, Sir, and I assure you it can. And it will. It's a mathematical certainty".
"How much time?"
"An hour, two at most."
"And how many in the room?"
"Two thousand two hundred souls, including the electricians and the researchers"

How's that for a dramatic moment? No wonder the audience were in floods of tears.
.

 

[Senan Molony]

quote:

Today all households keep a supply of spare bulbs for every room in the house

Agreed, Bob.

The one thing that EVERYONE remembers about this tragedy is the shortage of light bulbs.

Even if the householder wasn't technically breaking any laws with the few he had.​

 

[Senan Molony]

quote:

"Two thousand two hundred souls, including the electricians and the researchers"

It's a funny thing, Bob, but have you ever noticed how many of them are AC/DC?

I guess there must always be a given supply, to take it up the bulb.

(Oo-er, do I hear the heavy tramp of moderators beating an emergency path here from Monitor Hall?)

I've posted over 100 times now, so maybe I am overdue a lie-down in a darkened room...​

 

[Senan Molony]

Moving swiftly on, Bob, I have been trying to prompt you for some while now with these newsboy pictures...

What do you think of the general press reaction?

Was it slightly over the top for what must have been a relatively commonplace accident?

I mean it was all 'Electric SHOCK!' and headlines of that ilk...

 

[Inger Sheil]

Personally, I find many of these early accounts as electrifying today as they were back then...even if they do tend to emphasise the more shocking elements of the tragedy.

What I take issue with, however, is the superstitious suggestion that the manufacturers claims about the un-blowability of the bulb had anything to do with the disaster. Surely the more enlightened among us place no credence in this? This sort of belief belongs to the dark ages!

It's of the same ilk as the stories that still circulate suggesting that bulb was sabotagued by members of the candlemakers guild. It is a popular myth that the bulb's serial number, 274911-04, reads 'no lights' when held up to a mirror.

 

[Senan Molony]

Early advertising for the three sisters.

Had bulbs simply gotten too big?

quote:

superstitious suggestion that the manufacturers claims about the un-blowability of the bulb

Yeah, we've had a lot of that nonsense.
Complete bulb/ship!!!​

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Too much is made of the size of these bulbs. Even the largest of British-built (ok, Senan, Irish-built) bulbs were soon to be dwarfed by the giant bulbs under construction on slipways in Germany (see below - the famous Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse bulb). These Teutonic bulbs, however, were decorated in a rather over-blown style, and many consumers preferred the restrained elegance of bulbs built in British (and of course Irish) yards.

 

[Senan Molony]

Phew!

I was really worried there that you had been rounded up, Bob.

When I was coming here a moderator drove by in a black-and-white - I immediately threw myself to the threadside and didn't move a muscle - and luckily the patrol car carried on in the direction of Monitor Hall.

Astounding picture of the big bulb. Of course now I completely understand why Bright Star didn't whack a big champagne bottle against any of their bulbs. I would have been akin to letting loose a bulb in a china shop. Or something.

I have a picture of a bulb researcher with a very nice model bulb... must dig it out.

But you didn't say what you thought of the Press reaction to the mishap, Bob?

Rather overblown I would have said.

Worse was to follow.

As soon as the press in New York confronted these poor people, what did they do?

Set a thousand flashbubls popping in their faces!

Talk about insensitive!

 

[Bob Godfrey]

I was just hiding round the corner, Senan. But I see you're still here. Talk about luck of the Irish! As for the headlines, I've had too many dealings with Pressmen to be shocked by anything these days.