Antique Lighting Fixture tip # 6

I had just finished rewiring a nice little 2 bulb vintage bathroom fixture, turned it on and ... nothing. Odd, I thought that both bulbs would be bad, so I changed the bulbs to ones I knew were good. Turned it on and... nothing. OK, out with the continuity tester. Both sockets and switch tested in good working order. Sometimes switches have intermittent problems so I changed the switch, replaced the light bulbs which were good, turned it on and ... nothing.

That's when that little vintage light bulb went off in my head.

I remembered talking to an old timer about restoring antique lighting when he mentioned he had just fixed a fixture brought to him that was not working. The problem was so simple I had forgotten about it until now.

People have a tendency to screw the light bulb down TOO TIGHT. The metal contact point which the light bulb hits at the bottom of the socket is a thin piece of bendable copper. Repeatedly screwing the bulb down as tight as you can bends this contact point down. Then when you replace a light bulb with one which may not be as pointed at the bottom as the burned out one you are replacing, the bottom of the new light bulb doesn't hit the contact point on the socket. So you think it may be a bad light bulb and you try another light bulb which does work, after screwing it down really tight. So you throw away the new light bulb which did not work when in fact the light bulb was perfectly good.

So, when putting light bulbs in vintage lighting fixtures (or any fixtures for that matter) screw them in to where they just light up, and then no more than a quarter turn.

This will prevent the bottom contact from being deformed to where it will no longer make contact with the bottom of the light bulb.

The images show a cut-away view of inside an antique socket with two different light bulbs having very different bottom profiles.





Listen to Your Eyes. PB