The humble light bulb

So you wonder why light bulbs are round. Well it’s not something most people wonder about but it is a design and probably does have a reason so I looked it up. The reason is because it produces light. To widen that when the light bulb was invented Edison made it round because the two sources of light of the day where round. The flame of a candle is rounded and the sun is round however there might have been a more important reason. The round shape of a light bulb is easier to produce via glass blowing so before the advent of mass production light bulbs where first hand blown and so they where made round. Today a Korean designer has questioned why do light bulbs have to be round and he has designed the first flat bulbs. The flat bulb has many advantages such as they stack and take up less space so they cost less to ship. Also there’s the flat part the light bulb won’t role around so there’s less of a chance to break it.