Virtues and relevance of the incandescent light bulb

You might walk into Ràdio Fabregat (Rosselló, 292) to buy a couple of light bulbs and leave with a valuable history lesson. But not the history found in books, no, the history contained within objects, everyday life embodied in household items that hold memories. Of course, there must be someone capable of interpreting and transmitting it. This someone is Antoni Fonoll, and he has been the heart and soul of the business since 1992, when the founder, Antoni Fabregat, retired and Fonoll took it over to maintain its essence intact to this day. The shop is overflowing with merchandise.

The specialty is light bulbs, as always, of all kinds, and everything associated with them: cables, plugs, switches, power strips, and all sorts of lights. But they also have small appliances—toasters, mixers, fans, irons, coffee makers, blenders—and watches, scissors, batteries, glue, calculators, flashlights, alarm clocks... They still offer a service repairing old tube radios and lamps, but no longer small appliances. On the shelves, among the current appliances and products, are skillfully placed remnants of the past, that memory embodied in objects that Antoni uses to evoke his own memories and to stimulate those of the customers—young and old—who visit his sensational shop.

What were daily habits, electronics, and lighting like back then? Where were materials manufactured? Which pieces are still sought after? Understanding the present through the past. The warehouse still holds stocks of switches from the sixties and seventies, which could be useful to a customer in the Pyrenees wanting to renovate their farmhouse's electrical system, or to an art director on an audiovisual production who wants to be meticulous in recreating the past. The possibilities within the walls of Ràdio Fabregat are almost endless.

To find the origins of the shop, we must go back to 1951, when Joan Fabregat founded it. He specialized in installing speakers for local festivals and decided to start his own business selling and installing them. Light bulbs of all kinds, radios, and transistor manufacturing—Antoni still has one on display today. Fabregat knew Antoni's father and took him on as an apprentice when he was 14. This was in 1965, when trams 47 and 45 ran past, along Rosselló Street. Back when the neighboring—and historic—Elizalde aircraft factory still existed. And it's still there today. Antoni works with his son and an afternoon employee. And they keep alive the flame of a business that, without needing to be an expert to realize, has a touch of activism and also a certain fascination.

At Ràdio Fabregat, you can find every type of light bulb you could want. A thousand, really. LEDs, which are all the rage these days, but also incandescent bulbs, which allow you to do something as simple as adjusting the light intensity. A feature that, even today, many people still want. Antoni gives us a masterclass on the advantages of each and the drawbacks of the others. LEDs are energy-efficient, of course, and that's why they're so heavily promoted and recommended. But, on the other hand, they're not eco-friendly, since recycling them is very complicated due to the plastic materials they're made of. Wire bulbs, or incandescent bulbs, on the other hand, are eco-friendly, made with biodegradable glass and metal and 100% recyclable. "LEDs are more expensive and not eco-friendly at all!" exclaims Antoni. An LED costs 6 euros and an incandescent bulb, 2 euros. Anyone who wants to can bring them their burnt-out bulbs, and they'll take care of the recycling.

Globes for ceiling lights, a suitcase record player, a stairwell counter, a pendulum clock for controlling the lighting, a crystal radio from the Civil War... Not everything is for sale, you know! The shop window and shelves—and head to the storeroom!—of Ràdio Fàbregat are treasure troves. A shop that's a repository of stories and history. How lucky we are to have it among us.