In message , Graz
writes
On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:51:44 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

In message , N_Cook
writes
My response to someone's query in a UK national newspaper
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqu...,-1880,00.html
probably a load of balloney but it was the only published reply


When the festivities are over, our 30 year old set of 40 small lights
gets carefully wound onto a copy of the Christmas edition of the Radio
Times from around 1980. They are then put away carefully.

The following Christmas, before unwinding them, I always plug them in
first to test them. And guess what? They NEVER work until I check the
tightness of all 40 of them - and it IS always number 40 which is the
slack one. Only then do I unwind them, and put them up. Finally, I spend
a few minutes nostalgically looking at the old Radio Times, and realise
that most of the performers are now dead.

However, this year, I couldn't find them. I've obviously put them away
too carefully. So I treated myself to a new set. These are high-tech,
with 8 programmable modes of flashing. Christmas will never be the same.

And there's no way the new ones will last 30 years.

They will if you use the same maintenance procedure as the council
road-sweeper who had the same broom as he had when he started the job 30
years ago!

Actually, that's not completely true. I've also had to do the occasional
bit of re-soldering where the flex has broken off from the sockets.

I've actually got a set of lights (20 largish bulbs) which my parents
tried to surprise me with around 1950. It's short of a few working
bulbs, but I think you can still get them. Unfortunately, they are in
the same place as the set which I have lost.
--
Ian