how can a light bulb become a short circuit?


I was doing a search of diybanter when trying to figure out how to fix a
touch lamp, and found this thread:

http://www.diybanter.com/showthread.php?t=37812

... where someone claimed it's possible for a light bulb to become a
momentary short circuit while it's burning out. This sounds crazy to
me, but in the lamp I'm looking at, the triac is shorted and a trace
running between it and a wire that goes to the bulb is vaporized on the
circuit board. Only thing I can think of to cause that would be a short
on the bulb side of the trace.

So, on that basis I guess it must be possible for a light bulb to
generate a short. But I can't understand it at all. Can anyone explain
how it happens? A little arc as the filament opens would make sense,
but that's not the same thing.

I've ordered a replacement triac and will repair the trace - I'm
guessing that will fix it, I don't find anything else that tests bad.


--
dstromb
.

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