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Comment by jokabrink | Hacker News Reader

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jokabrink·

The text you cited was changed just today from

> [...] lowered the useful life of such bulbs, which raised their efficiency [...]

> [...] lowered the useful life of such bulbs, which falsely claimed to raise their efficiency [...]

emphasis mine. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoebus_cartel&di...

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This seems to have been reverted only moments ago. Perhaps a disgruntled person from HN trying to force learned false history on Wikipedia?

Please watch the video from Technology Connections linked above to understand why a) Phoebus was indeed a cartel but b) which did not have as nefarious purposes as has been later claimed by e.g. populist TV documentaries such as "The Light Bulb Conspiracy".

I believe you that the efficiency argument played a role when they decided to reduce the life expectancy of the light bulbs. The cartel doing 'cartel-things' aside, the 1000h-limit probably was a good decision even though I think that they ultimately did not do it for the consumer.

Of course, there's no citation for the change.

The citation for that sentence does back up the assertion: there's a quote from someone in the source saying that the cartel didn't meaningfully increase efficiency but did shorten lifespans. Whether you trust a media studies professor who has 'studied the cartel's documents' is another question though.

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