Quick spot quiz: who invented the lightbulb? Thomas Edison, right? Failed the ethnocentric test again, Yankee. The photo above is Newcastle's claim to fame on a wall. You'd think this guy would merit a whole statue on a shelf on a wall, but all he gets is this brass plaque. Newcastle isn't big on dead guys on buildings. In fact the only one we saw yesterday was so high up on a pillar you couldn't even recognize him from any angle. But Swan had a pretty important role I'd say with the incandescent bulb. That introduced a revolution of progress to the developed world and forever changed circadian rhythms of our species. Who'd think after just 115 or so years it has had it's swan song. In Tacoma the sales of them is banned from stores. Our power company figures if they're replaced by energy-efficient bulbs within a few years there will be far fewer new power plants needed in the Pacific Northwest. I read in the News Tribune that the incandescent bulb sheds it's light 90% by burning fire, which is pitiful next to it's competitors, CFL, LED, and halogen. So the incandescent bulb is history.
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