GE Lighting began a year-long countdown on Monday to its 100th anniversary of Nela Park in April 2013 with the unearthing of a time capsule in the cornerstone of one of the original buildings at the East Cleveland research center.

Artifacts in the time capsule, actually a lead box, included a photos of Nela's founders, journals, a book of technical specifications, and a Plain Dealer. Above the box in the interior of the cornerstone were five incandescent light bulbs. They had been packed in sand.

Yes. At least one of the five 40-watt bulbs worked.

Its heavy filament could be seen glowing softly in the noon sun as engineers ramped up power to a special socket used for the occasion. After the ceremony engineers began testing the remaining bulbs in a nearby laboratory.

Named for the National Electric Lamp Association, a turn-of-the-century company acquired by General Electric, Nela Park is often called the nation's first industrial park.

GE Time Capsule 7 Gallery: GE Time Capsule

But its mission was always research that early company executives thought would be more successful in a bucolic setting, miles away from the company's E. 45th Street manufacturing center.

Today's GE Lighting employs some 17,000 employees around the world, including more than 700 at Nela Park, where cutting-edge research continues.

Originally built on about 40 acres that had been vineyards, Nela Park grew and in 1975, the 92-acre Nela Park was listed as a "historic place" in the U.S. Department of the Interior's national register.