Back in 2007, when Turnbull banned incandescent bulbs, Woolworths put them on sale at giveaway prices with no limits, so, being a hater of compact fluorescent bulbs, I stocked up on cheap incandescents.

Friends thought I was nuts, and WW took a long time to run out of them as they weren't popular, even at run out prices.

As my stock runs low, I just noticed, for the first time, on one empty box of 4 that I was tossing out, this printed on the side of it: "For your added safety, every Mirabella globe has two built-in safety fuses."

I have always considered an incandescent bulb itself to be a fuse with around a 1,000 hour lifetime. I guess Mirabella was trying to protect against the effect of internal shorts.

Actually most all 240v incandescents have fuses. They are needed for when the filament goes open circuit. When this happens the arc started by the break travels down the stem wires into the base. It can do a lot of damage and become quite dramatic if not limited somehow. You'll usually find the base fuses encased in tiny glass tubes.

I completely didn't notice the Woolworths sale. Still, I've hoarded every bulb I could get my hands on (not that many in the end). But in that time, I've only had to replace less than 5 - they have been incredibly reliable. I remember as a kid, globes were always blowing - but not now.

I remember as a kid, globes were always blowing - but not now.

Yes, I do too. Back in my early twenties when I was house sharing, we had a 60 watt bulb explode violently out of its socket onto the lounge room floor. Everybody in the room near jumped out of their skin.

I think supply voltage regulation got a lot better over the years and I guess it also depended on where you were living. Mind you, now that we have people jamming excess solar energy back up the mains, regulation has probably gone to the dogs.

It's now 13 years since I stocked up on incandescents, and I do still have stock, so they have been quite reliable.

We have talked a bit lately about conspiracy theories, but here's a cartel conspiracy that actually occurred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel

The best bulbs ever made were incandescent and that's why I never gave them up.
Warm light, good for reading , excellent and correct for old lamps.
40w is getting hard to buy,100 w is still about on the ebay ,15 w for lamps I can ever get enough of them, also the old party lights were far better colours than that new crap from China! Damn greenies ,the incandescent bulbs are hardly a environment problem...eg since coronavirus and the lock down laws Inindia you can now see the Himalayan mountains for the first time in very long time and it's only been a couple of weeks since the isolation lock down.
Banning bulbs was a morons idea!

Pete

The untimely flash and "plink" noise were unnerving enough, but when you're sitting there quietly, and a bulb slips out of its overhead socket and smashes to bits on the floor is heart attack material.

The one problem with incandescent globes is the heat in the socket, especially if the contacts are a bit worn. This can lead to arcing and perhaps even a fire. I've had to replace 2 sockets because of burnt pins.

I don't have a great preference for one type of globe over another, but there's the price factor to consider. A compact flouro costs $11 (last time I looked) vs $1 for incandescent (when they were in supermarkets), and they both have similar survival times.

$1 for incandescent (when they were in supermarkets)

They were 30 cents or less when I loaded up the shopping trolley back in 2007. Every time I went back for a couple of weeks the damn shelves were restocked, so I kept buying. (A reverse toilet paper situation.)

Apart from the extortionate cost of the CF's that Turnbull foist upon us, I hated the light that came from them. As Pete says, incandescents give a nice glow.

Not all incandescent bulbs had fuses. The ones that didn't would often explode when the filament broke, for the reasons I explained above.
That's why responsible manufacturers added fuses.

Consider how much worse would be the situation with DC mains.....

Yes, there was a cartel agreement to limit the lifetime of an incandescent lamp, in order to ensure an ongoing industry.

Aside from pilot lamps that I need for my electrical test lamps, I haven't purchased a standard incandescent light globe since well before the ban. The ban came well after Australia ceased manufacture of them and we only had one major globe factory which was in Newcastle, which made globes and fluorescent tubes for all the major brands, including Philips, Crompton, Osram, General Electric, Thorn, GEC, Sylvania and the supermarket brands including Embassy and Home Brand and my original employer's brand the NSWG, which co-branded Philips and Osram on lamps which were purchased under NSW Government Contract.

I've always been happy to buy compact fluoros in warm white and LED globes, again in warm white, to closely match the colour of incandescent filaments to remove the issue of eye strain simply because, as an electrician who spent a lot of time changing lamps, never wanted to change them at home unless absolutely necessary.

Some LEDs colour temps are OK ... and there's also the RFI issue with non-incandescents.

My dad told me a story (~1970’s) about a incandescent light at his grandmothers house for the porch that was turned on every afternoon for 45 years until Osram, who made the globe, came and offered a box of new globes for the old one so they could put it in their museum.
Apparently the box of new Osram globes only lasted about two years.

Yes and as GTC mentioned the radio noise from fluro and (especially cheap) LED’s can be unbelievable!

Yes I wonder why they did that?? Explanation might be here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel

Hard to believe but true!

Quite few stories around the world like that one. Here's supposedly the longest burning incandescent:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light

At one tine I had a box of brand new bayonet based carbon filament bulbs that I obtained from my grandfather. They drew 2 amps each. I can't find them now and I have no recollection of what I did with them.

GTC wow 2 amps! If you ever find them I’d like to see what they look like!

Yes Ian it could well be that but we’ll never know for sure. Who knows how they even knew or found out about the old globe!
That’s probably the thing I hate the most about capitalism and that’s planned obsolescence! I'm appalled with our disposable society but it’s the one I’m growing up in and I don’t have much choice

Lance

Who knows how they even knew or found out about the old globe!

It was probably featured in a newspaper story. I have vague recollections of such news stories and, if I spent enough time trawling their archives, I might be able to find one.

Lance: very similar to this one: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/media/departmental/physics/...