Card No. 15

The answers

1. Since 1840

   A battery-powered bell in an Oxford physics lab

   Still going

   The Oxford Electric Bell has rung about twice a second since 1840, roughly 10 billion times. Nobody knows exactly what is in its batteries, because opening them would stop it.

2. Since 1918

   Gasoline Alley, a newspaper comic strip

   Still going

   Gasoline Alley runs daily and is the longest-running current US strip. Its characters age in real time, so Skeezix, who arrived as a baby in 1921, grew up to be a grandfather.

3. Since 1952

   An eight-engine Boeing airplane flown by the US Air Force

   Still going

   The B-52 is still in service. The youngest one was built in 1962, and the Air Force is fitting the fleet with new Rolls-Royce engines to fly it until about 2050, when that plane will be 88.

4. Since 1927

   A funnel of tar set up at an Australian university

   Still going

   In 1927 Professor Thomas Parnell poured heated pitch into a funnel with a sealed stem and let it settle. He cut the stem in 1930. Nine drops have fallen since, the last on April 24, 2014, and the tenth is still forming.

5. Since 2005

   A web page that sold ad space at $1 a pixel

   Still going

   The Million Dollar Homepage is still online. It grossed $1,037,100 by January 2006. By 2019 about 40% of its links were dead.