The hunt is on for Britain’s oldest functioning lamp

A search has been launched to discover the oldest lamp still glowing strong in a UK home.

What’s more, the Royal Society of Chemistry is offering a reward of £500 to the owner.

The prize is to highlight the achievements of a sadly overlooked Sunderland-born scientist who was the first to demonstrate a lamp publicly.

In 1879 Joseph Swan began installing lamps in homes and landmarks across England. In 1880, he gave the world's first large-scale public exhibition of electric lamps in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Although American scientist Edison is often credited with inventing the lamp, Swan and Edison made similar advances at about the same time on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Later, after bitter patent battles, Swan teamed up with Thomas Edison using the trademark EdiSwan.

So, what kind of competition is the modern day lamp hound up against? Remarkably, one bulb situated in a Californian fire station is said to have been installed in 1901 and is still burning to this day.