COLLECTOR'S PASSION: 60,000 POINTS OF LIGHT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 19, 1992                   TAG: 9202190059
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BALTIMORE                                LENGTH: Short
COLLECTOR'S PASSION: 60,000 POINTS OF LIGHT
To some people, a lightbulb is just a thin piece of glass around a delicate puzzle of wires. To Hugh Hicks, lightbulbs are a burning obsession.
Hicks' lightbulb collection is considered one of the most extensive and complete in the world. It is respected and consulted by the Smithsonian Institution and the Edison Historic Site museum in Menlo Park, N.J.
Ask the 69-year-old dentist about the time he snagged an unusual bulb from a Paris subway station - throwing it into darkness - and you'll get his impassioned account:
"It was in 1959 or 1960. I couldn't believe it but the tunnel entrance was rimmed by bulbs from the 1920s! They had survived the war, damage from people, everything.
"So I thought to myself: one will certainly never be missed. I didn't know it, but these bulbs were in series, just like Christmas lights. So when I pulled one off, the entire line went out. You've never heard so much swearing in French in your life! I tried to put it back in but it wouldn't go back in, so I copped two more and walked away."
No bulb, it seems, is safe when Hicks is around. But a lifetime of collecting has earned him 60,000 bulbs, with 8,000 of them on display at his Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting.
Hicks has some of Thomas Edison's first efforts made in 1879. He also has a floodlight used to light the launch pads at Cape Canaveral - a 9,000-watt arc light.
For an appointment to visit the Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting, call Hicks at (301) 752-8586.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB