Century-Old GE Bulbs Light Up 100th Anniversary

Employees at GE's Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio, opened a century-old time capsule on Monday that contained some fascinating company memorabilia of a bygone era, including five light bulbs. Three of them appeared to be in working condition, according to www.gereports.com. The time capsule had been buried in the cornerstone of a building on the Nela Park campus, where GE has held hundreds of lighting classes for lighting professionals over the years.

The posting said GE Lighting engineers cleaned one of the bulbs, screwed it into a socket, and powered it up to 60V. It started emitting a soft glow, a distant incandescent echo of Thomas Edison's ingenuity. “It's a remarkable testament to the craftsmanship and quality of GE products that one of the tungsten filament lamps buried for 100 years showed signs of life,” said Maryrose Sylvester, president and CEO of GE Lighting (pictured here opening the time capsule - photo courtesy of GE).

The time capsule was reopened to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the facility. Hundreds of GE Lighting employees and retirees gathered at the base of Building No. 307 for a history lesson. The time capsule was unearthed and its contents were removed and put on display before being moved to a secure temperature- and light-controlled space across the Nela Park campus, near GE's current multi-million dollar LED reliability and testing labs and clean room.

In April 2013, the company will bring Nela Park employees together for a ceremonial burying of a new time capsule, which is expected to include a GE Energy Smart 60W LED bulb that lasts over 22 years when operated three hours a day, new more informative consumer light bulb packaging debuting in 2012, marketing materials and an employee photo.