Forum Decorum....

John Carpenter

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Nov 1, 2002
Messages
336
My son had this e-mailed to him this morning and I thought it was pretty funny...as well as true. The comments contained in it will probably be borne out by the progress of this thread:)<br /><br /><br />How many forum members does it take to change a light bulb?<br /><br />1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed;<br />14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light<br />bulb could have been changed differently;<br />7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs;<br />1 to move it to the Lighting section;<br />2 to argue then move it to the Electrical section;<br />7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs;<br />5 to flame the spell checkers;<br />3 to correct spelling/grammar flames;<br />6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb";<br />6 to condemn those 6 as stupid;<br />2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp";<br />15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb"<br />is perfectly correct;<br />19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this<br />discussion to a lightbulb forum;<br />11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs<br />and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum;<br />36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy<br />the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique<br />and what brands are faulty;<br />7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs;<br />4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected<br />URL's;<br />3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this<br />group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group;<br />13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all<br />headers and signatures, and add "Me too";<br />5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot<br />handle the light bulb controversy;<br />4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?";<br />13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about<br />light bulbs";<br />1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start<br />it all over again.<br /><br /><br />Best Regards...............John
 

John Carpenter

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Nov 1, 2002
Messages
336
Re: Forum Decorum....

Well.....my bad. I guess "we" didn't go through it at all. First time I ever saw this thing was this morning. Now, I am embarrassed to have posted the dang thing. Oh well...I have certainly done worse. At least is IS funny and true.
 

SpinnerBait_Nut

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Aug 25, 2002
Messages
17,651
Re: Forum Decorum....

91853.fpx
 

pjc

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jun 29, 2003
Messages
1,856
Re: Forum Decorum....

.....Posted in Honor to the "Light Bulb".......<br /><br />Obituary: Hugh Hicks, dentist who ran light bulb museum, dies <br />Wednesday May 08, @10:29PM <br />from the Collection-considered-one-of-biggest,-best-in-worl--d dept. <br /><br /><br />This has nothing to do with i18n per se, but it is a tribute to someone who spent a lifetime keeping track of a not-so old, but now mostly mundane technology. This lifetime provides a lesson of the rapid change and adoption of the technologies we work with and provides a place and pattern of the histry we are all part of today> <br /><br />By Jacques Kelly and Frederick N. Rasmussen <br />Baltimore Sun Staff <br />Originally published May 8, 2002 <br /><br />Dr. Hugh Francis Hicks, the dentist whose Mount Vernon Place office was home to what is thought to be the world's foremost collection of electric light bulbs, died yesterday of a heart attack at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Roland Park [Baltimore, MD, USA]resident was 79. <br /><br />His enthusiasm for glowing glass never exhausted, and through the years he amassed a collection that included a bulb from the original torch of the Statue of Liberty and headlamps from the Mercedes-Benz limousines of Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. <br /><br />Dr. Hicks regularly told visitors to his free, private museum that his was the only collection in the world containing an uninterrupted history of the light bulb, including 15 or 20 bulbs that Thomas Alva Edison probably held in his hands 122 years ago. <br /><br />"In terms of numbers, his may very well be the largest collection in the world, certainly the largest collection any of us knew," said Harold D. Wallace, a specialist with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History. "He was the kind of guy who never met a light bulb he didn't like. <br /><br />"There are greedy collectors, but Hugh was always a generous collector who donated objects to us and lent them freely," Mr. Wallace said. <br /><br />Born in Baltimore and raised on Springlake Way in Homeland, he was the son of Dr. Hugh T. Hicks, a periodontist, and a descendant of Gov. Thomas Holliday Hicks, Maryland governor from 1858 to 1862. <br /><br />A 1941 graduate of City College, Dr. Hicks earned his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1945. After graduating from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, he joined his father's practice in the Medical Arts Building in 1951. <br /><br />Also a periodontist, he established his practice in a Mount Vernon Place townhouse in 1957 and never fully retired. At his death, he maintained an office and waiting room that overlooked the John Eager Howard statue and Stafford Apartments. <br /><br />"I don't think there is a more beautiful place in the world to work," he told a reporter earlier this year. <br /><br />An obsession begins <br /><br />"My grandmother always told the story that he didn't want to play with toys when he was a baby, so she put a light bulb in his crib and he began playing with it," said a daughter, Frances Hicks Apollony of Homeland. <br /><br />That was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with light bulbs that grew into a world-renowned collection of 75,000 bulbs. About 10,000 bulbs were labeled and on display in the basement museum of his dentist office at 717 Washington Place. A subcategory of the collection includes lighting fixtures, from sconces to street lights and chandeliers. <br /><br />The museum opened in 1964 and drew more than 6,000 visitors annually. They benefited from hands-on tours from Dr. Hicks. Scholars, other collectors and fans from all over the world were among the visitors. <br /><br />"They all come here to gasp in wonderment," said Dr. Hicks in a 1989 Evening Sun interview. <br /><br />Like all collectors, Dr. Hicks had plenty of stories to accompany his acquisitions. <br /><br />In a Paris subway tunnel in 1964, he noticed a series of 1920s-era tungsten bulbs along the wall. He didn't know that the bulbs were wired in series - when one was removed, they all went out. <br /><br />So when he surreptitiously unscrewed and removed a bulb, the tunnel suddenly went dark. As a chorus of passengers screamed and howled in the background, he nervously tried to replace the bulb. <br /><br />"But I couldn't get it back. So, you know me, I grabbed two more and took off," he said in the Evening Sun interview. <br /><br />Pieces of the past <br /><br />The largest bulb in his collection dates to 1926, is 4 feet high and requires 50,000 watts of electricity to glow. The most diminutive is a pin light that was produced in the 1960s and used in missile wiring. It is only visible under a microscope. <br /><br />Other historical pieces include a 3-foot-long tubular bulb used during the 1930s to illuminate the ill-fated French liner Normandie; a dashboard light from the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945; an Edison bulb from the now-demolished Vanderbilt mansion in New York; and a 15-watt fluorescent bulb that illuminated the table on which the Japanese signed the surrender in World War II aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945. <br /><br />"This is the only museum in the world that covers the whole history of the light bulb. And when we can teach the public, especially our schoolchildren, about the most important industrial development - the light bulb - then we are fulfilling our mission," Dr. Hicks told The Sun in 1999. <br /><br />"Without the light bulb there would be no space travel, no air travel, no television and no electronic video games," he said. <br /><br />Active in community <br /><br />He was recalled as a cheerful, happy man, who enjoyed opera and served on the Baltimore Opera Company's board. He also had a deep appreciation of Baltimore's history and traditions. He opened his museum for First Thursday openings along Charles Street and for the annual December holiday lighting of the Washington Monument. <br /><br />"He loved giving personally guided tours of his museum to schoolchildren. I don't think we'll ever be able to find someone to do what he did," said his daughter. <br /><br />"When he celebrated his 75th birthday, Westinghouse made him a 75,000-watt light bulb to commemorate his birthday," said Mrs. Apollony. <br /><br />"He was one of the finest friends this city has ever had," said Clarisse B. Mechanic, a friend who owns the Mechanic Theatre downtown. "I can't go past his Mount Vernon Place office and not think of him. He was one of Baltimore's real treasures." <br /><br />Dr. Hicks may have enjoyed collecting and displaying artifacts that defined the history of electric illumination, but at home he enjoyed turning on the gaslights. <br /><br />"The gaslights in his Roland Park home still worked, and he loved using them for parties," said Mrs. Apollony. <br /><br />He was married in 1950 to Mary Louise Amos, who died in 1990. <br /><br />A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. David's Episcopal Church, 4700 Roland Ave. <br /><br />Dr. Hicks is survived by another daughter, Louise Hicks Smith of Winchester, Va.; a sister, Lois Hicks Burkley of Baltimore; and four grandchildren. <br /><br />Sun researcher Sarah E. Gehring contributed to this article.
 

kenimpzoom

Rear Admiral
Joined
Jul 13, 2002
Messages
4,807
Re: Forum Decorum....

It is "lamps" you fools!!!<br /><br />And it belongs in the "non-boating technical topics"<br /><br />Ken
 

Link

Rear Admiral
Joined
Apr 13, 2003
Messages
4,221
Re: Forum Decorum....

Moving to <br />Boat (not engine)Electrics, Electronics and Trolling Motors<br /><br /> :D
 

jtexas

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
8,646
Re: Forum Decorum....

This forum is not about light bulbs...
 

ChrisMcLaughlin

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
387
Re: Forum Decorum....

This is a dim subject. Not too bright to make light of lamps. Without them we would all be in the dark. Shall I go on??? :D
 

gsbodine

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 4, 2004
Messages
346
Re: Forum Decorum....

Originally posted by trblshtr:<br /> This is a dim subject. Not too bright to make light of lamps. Without them we would all be in the dark. Shall I go on??? :D
Please. Enlighten us :rolleyes: .
 

ED21

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 26, 2003
Messages
829
Re: Forum Decorum....

Now should I use bulbs w/ a tungstun filament or switch to a synthetic filament. ;)
 

NOSLEEP

Commander
Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
2,442
Re: Forum Decorum....

Can you change the filament without changing<br />the bulb?
 

Pascal

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 9, 2002
Messages
252
Re: Forum Decorum....

those aren't light bulbs - there dark suckers<br /><br />You flipa the switch and they sucks the dark right outa the room
 
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