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Light Bulbs Unscrewing Themselves

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Geedub

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Nov 9, 2012
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13
I've read a few things over the years about people who seem to be able to make light bulbs go pop just by going near them, but I've never come across anything like my own (admittedly infrequent) experience with bulbs. If I'm treading old ground or if anyone else has experienced something similar please let me know.
I should probably also preface this by saying that I'm a sceptic and if anyone can come up with a rational explanation I'd love to hear it!
Light bulbs seem to unscrew themselves around me. Not very often and (annoyingly for a sceptic) only at particularly stressful times in my life, making me wonder if this is somehow related.
The first time it happened was when I was a typically angst-ridden teenager. The standard bayonet-type bulb in my bedroom which I'd turned off maybe 20 minutes previously, fell out of the light socket and landed on my bed with a thump which woke me from near sleep. Strangely I somehow knew it was the bulb almost instantly, although I couldn't have expected something like that to happen. After all, how often do bulbs fall out of light fittings?
I've no idea how long the bulb had been in place, but it hadn't been recently changed and if it hadn't been put in properly surely it would have fallen out before? I'm not even sure a bayonet-type fitting would work if it wasn't correctly installed. The bulb hadn't blown, as putting it back into the fitting showed.
Weird, but chalk it down to experience. Until that is, it happens again. Once (in a different house) with a screw-fitting hallway bulb which my then partner asked me to change. It turned out the bulb had been unscrewed to the point of falling out. I don't think anyone else would have had the access or the motivation to unscrew it, and a couple of twists back into the socket sorted it out. Also, twice (again in a different house) with my current partner where bayonet-style bulbs which have been in place for years popped out of their fittings. One was in an uplighter so didn't fall out but was loose. The other we found on the hallway floor. Neither bulb was blown and worked when re-fitted.
Could well be a simple case of me being paranoid and putting 2 and 2 together to make 563, but it does seem odd.
 
It has happened to me, though only the once about ten years ago. The bayonet bulb on my landing fell from its socket, dropped some ten feet to the carpet, bounced down the staircase and landed intact at the bottom of the stairs.

It had not been changed for several months, had been working perfectly up to its unexpected journey and - so far as I could ascertain - it would not work unless it was snug in the socket. In any case, I tend to be careful to make sure that any bulb is properly fixed - I suppose most people are.

In fact the bulb continued to work perfectly when replaced. It had no further rebellious moments and I have never known it happen again. So I, for one, certainly believe such a thing can happen. I can make no sense of it. Apart from an unexplained pool of water in the kitchen, which was in roughly the same period, the house has been disappointingly free of strange phenomena, even when my stressed condition might have favoured them, according to tradition. :)

Here we go! An old thread has survived with my story again! But several others too!

edit: "certainly" not "certain believe!"
 
A-ha! At least I'm not the only one!
Thanks for that James and for the link. It seems there are a fair few, cheap bulbs falling apart at the seams, but not quite so many simply falling out.
I think heat contraction/expansion as mentioned in one of the posts could provide a possible answer. I'm probably going to go with that anyway as I've also led a life (sadly!) short of Fortean strangeness.
 
This reminds me that this has also happened to me.

When I was about 14 or 15, I was visiting my grandparents in Middlesex. I was curled up on the rug in the lounge reading a book and occasionally looking at the telly, with other members of my family around me.
One of the bulbs from the light above me simply fell onto the rug, narrowly missing my head. It was intact and as it was still hot, it had to be handled very carefully to get it back into the socket (a bayonet type).

This event was witnessed by several members of my family, who were a bit spooked by it.

I can understand a screw-thread bulb working loose (caused by heating and cooling), but not a bayonet type bulb.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I can understand a screw-thread bulb working loose (caused by heating and cooling), but not a bayonet type bulb.
Click to expand...

But aren't the sockets spring loaded on a bayonet fitting? If you push the bulb straight up you can feel the spring pusing the bulb back down. Twisting it locks the bayonets into position but the bulb is still subject to the downward pressure.

If the bulb moves at all (from vibration for example), and the L-shaped cutout is slightly worn, is it not possible that the spings could eject the bulb?
 
I had a set of light bulbs in my kitchen that regularly unscrewed themselves I worked out that it was caused by the heatng/cooling shrinking/expanding of the socket.
:)
 
The old brass type bayonet sockets gradually get 'stretched', probably due to differential expansion between them and newer bulbs which don't have brass bases. Also, you can put a bayonet type bulb in and not turn it enough to lock - it sometimes will still light, but eventually pop out, usually at a highly inconvenient moment.

But they are still safer than the screw type, which are very easy to over-tighten or otherwise break off so you have to dig out the metal part with a screwdriver. Had experience of the screw ones in the States and hated them.
 
Yup, I agree that it's possible to insert a bayonet-type bulb incorrectly so that it works for a while and then falls out. I believe I've done this myself, through rushing it/being in the dark and from feeling worried that the electricity is still on and I'll get a shock. ;)
 
I have a work colleague who is currently experiencing some very stange events in the their home - many occurences centered around lightbulbs. He will come down in the morning to find the lightbulb removed and placed on the floor underneath the fitting (never broken). He has checked it over many times, also lightbulbs fill with water in this house, his bath is found with the plug in and full to the brim with water, pictures fall to the floor, ornaments move and the door bell can sometimes ring incessantly.

He is freaked out but his wife is more accepting and realises that whatever it is won't hurt them
 
Another case of water in a light-bulb here

In that case, the area was affected by storms, with water reported elswhere on the fixture - it is possible to imagine some sort of capillary action up cables causing corrosion and a way into the vacuum that would suck up more fluid. Others have raised the notion of condensation being a factor, if air is finding a way in. It is certainly a lot of water - despite which, I am amazed anyone would spot it except a technician changing the bulb!

I have certainly heard of water in lightbulbs as a feature of complex "hauntings" - especially the kind where electrical phenomena abound.

I have a dim memory of the tale of a live snake being found inside a light-bulb but I can't trace it online. Maybe it was just in a horror story. :shock:
 
Lightbulbs falling out is something I am happy to have never experienced. On the other hand, the fixtures themselves will fall in my house. I have had multiple types of ceiling light covers fall almost on top of me.

I am a bit uncomfortable sitting below our ceiling fan...
 
tamyu said:
Lightbulbs falling out is something I am happy to have never experienced. On the other hand, the fixtures themselves will fall in my house. I have had multiple types of ceiling light covers fall almost on top of me.

I am a bit uncomfortable sitting below our ceiling fan...
Click to expand...

Avoid it! You'll be beheaded! My ceiling fell in once. A guy came around to fix it, had a look and said he had to go and get some materials but told me that I shouldn't sit under the hole in the meantime!
 
I think that lightbulbs coming unscrewed can be explained by vibrations in the building. Pretty sure that most buildings will experience small vibrations in the fabrics of the structure due to other factors, such as passing traffic. Although these vibrations are so small that we do not notice them, they can effect objects in the building over time. Sure I saw a TV prog on it at some point.
 
Unscrewing I can understand but the mystery is how bayonet-fitting bulbs can free themselves. The rational thing, as escargot says, is to accept culpability for not getting it in all the way . . . stop giggling at the back!

But I make a point of making sure bulbs are well-seated, aware that a poor connection might lead to sparking or over-heating. I am also sure that my curiosity about the event led me to experiment with the fitting to see if I could replicate the way a bulb could sit happily for months and then fall. If I had found any weakness in the fitting, I would have replaced it. In fact the same fitting is doing good service to this day, albeit with a modern fluorescent-type bulb. There has been no repeat of the event.

If a higher or more awkward fitting had popped a bulb, I would understand it but this pendant ceiling light is easily-accessed on library-steps and fully visible during the bulb-changing process. . . . :spinning
 
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