Dead Simple Lamp Fix

The Patient

I have a lamp that, at one point, stopped working. You could plug it in and turn the switch, but nothing much would happen, even with fresh light bulbs or a different outlet.

The switch in the lamp looks almost exactly like this one,

Initial learnings and outstanding questions:

• The bit that the bulb screws in to is called an “Edison Base” (after the inventor)
• The socket itself is a “phenolic socket” (after the material, phenolic resin, used to make the socket)
• The socket’s power and ground connections are different colors - I’m not sure which is which.
  • I’m not sure if it matters, either - does a lightbulb contain any components that only conduct current in one direction?

The Surgery

I took apart the socket, and found that the power/ground wires had started to slip from their anchor point. These are curved wires that are held in place by a screw. I think that, as the wires are put under tension over the lifetime of the lamp, they gradually slip out from under the screw. Once either wire loses it’s contact, the circuit breaks, and we get no more light.

The fix was dead simple - un-screw both screws, and firmly re-affix the wire underneath. There’s really not much to this circuit, just the power, the switch, and the lightbulb, so there’s not much else to fix!

Prognosis

The lamp light sometimes flickers or dies when rotated in a certain direction. I suspect that, in addition to the loose connections to the switch, there are fraying or poorly connected wires threaded through the body of the lamp. If this behavior gets much worse, I will have to take apart the more complicated housing at the base of the lamp to repair these wires. For now, it works well enough.