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An odd occurrence

Something happened last night that I can't readily explain. Some of you are already familiar with the story, but here's what happened:

Right around midnight I was sitting here at the computer. All of the lights in the room except for the lamp right next to me were off. Behind me, against the wall, is an antique electric lamp that doesn't work. It used to belong to my great grandmother, and had been sitting in her attic since the 1950's. I've had it for five or six years, tried it with a new bulb and it didn't work. I put the original bulb back in and decided to use it as a show piece instead of a functional lamp. It to my knowledge has never been plugged in aside from that initial test five or six years ago. The filament in the bulb itself is separated from the rest of the bulb, to the point that if you shake the bulb you can see the filament sloshing back and forth.

As I was getting ready to log out and retire to bed, the room started to get very bright, and it was emanating from behind me. I turned around and saw this lamp putting out an intense light, so bright I had to shield my eyes. There's no shade on the lamp, so I was looking directly at the bulb itself. As mysteriously as it began, it faded away. I would say that the entire incident lasted four or five seconds.

My first thought was "power surge" until I realized that (A) the lamp didn't work, (B) the lamp wasn't plugged in, (C) the bulb was over fifty years old and had no filament in it. When I walked back to the lamp, I verified that it wasn't plugged in and I noticed that the bulb was putting off a burnt scent, just like you would expect a bulb that hadn't been used in over fifty years to smell like after it burned for a few seconds. The bulb wasn't blazing hot or anything, but it wasn't exactly as cool as room temperature, either.

I'm a rational man, and I've looked for several different explanations for what happened, and all of them are ruled out due to one or more variables present that would render them unlikely. To clarify; no, I wasn't drunk, and no, I don't use drugs. I'm not prone to hallucination nor was the lamp located in such a way that it could be the reflection of passing carlights or other readily explainable phenomena. I'm truly stumped.

What do you make of it?
 
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What was the weather like that night?
Could be ball lightning, I hear tell that stuff does some crazy things.
 
I'm the superstitious type, and believe in spirits, ghosts, and what have you. I've been in some places that definitely felt haunted. So from that statement I think you can guess what I think caused it, or maybe there is some explanation I'm missing.
 
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What was the weather like that night?
Could be ball lightning, I hear tell that stuff does some crazy things.

Yeah, that was the second thing I thought. From what I read up on it, though, it would need an energy source to travel through, which wasn't the case here.

I also looked into electrostatical behavior, and I have to rule that out based on the fact that there was no filament to charge.
 
I want to believe, but it is very difficult to accept . . . .

Are you certain that it was the lamp and not something behind the lamp that was glowing so brightly?
 
My guess is that there was a chemical reaction between the metals in the filament. I don't know what metals are in such a filament. But, that is the only thing that makes any sense to me. Why it waited so long to flare up is strange.
 
Very weird stuff. Thank goodness it happened in your house and not mine. I hope to hear a good explanation soon.
 
You probably were so tired that your eyes were playing tricks on you.

I doubt that.

That's weird dude.

Tell me about it!

someone outside with a bright laser? they make them in all sorts of colors, even white.

Nope, lamp was against a wooden wall. The one window in the room is completely obscured behind a seven foot tall Oak bookshelf. Someone could be standing at the window with a flood light and it would not have cast a glare.

Must have been swamp gas.

Possible, of course, but the absence of any swamps or marshes in the nearby vicinity makes me rule that out. Also, swamp gas traditionally burns a bright blue or green (golden yellow if reacting to phosphate) and this light was most decidedly an electric white with a yellowish hue. I've seen swamp gas light in action, and you couldn't ever mistake it for the glow of an electric lightbulb.

I want to believe, but it is very difficult to accept . . . .

Are you certain that it was the lamp and not something behind the lamp that was glowing so brightly?

Nope, again, it was against a wood paneled wall.

My guess is that there was a chemical reaction between the metals in the filament. I don't know what metals are in such a filament. But, that is the only thing that makes any sense to me. Why it waited so long to flare up is strange.

This is an area I'm studying closely. Without knowing enough about vintage lightbulbs I can only guess as to what kind of metal is used in its construction. Whatever identifying markings were present on it have long since faded away.

Short-term psychosomatic episode. Your mind was playing tricks on you.

Did anyone else witness this event?

Nope, I was the only one in the room. I'm really leaning as far away from the hallucination angle as I can. I know it's entirely feasible that I imagined the whole thing, but I highly doubt it. I'm trying to approach this as being a real event that actually occurred outside the confines of my mind, so a figment of my imagination is not the avenue I want to explore until I can rule out all physical explanations.

Very weird stuff. Thank goodness it happened in your house and not mine.

I've lived here for five years and this is the second weird thing to happen to me. That's not too bad a track record so far. :biggrin:
 
I'm still scratching my head with this one. I've got two theories though...There may be some haunts in that house, or some member here at B&B didn't keep the light on long enough to keep you distracted while they coordinated the shave den heist. *whispers* What did I tell you goons!? Keep the light on longer and we could have had an almost unlimited amount of Clubman products! :lol:
 
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