The search is on for Britain's oldest working lightbulb, still glowing after many decades - and possibly beating what are claimed to be the world's oldest working bulbs in the US, both allegedly still burning after a century.

It will pain the Royal Society of Chemistry if there isn't an older bulb somewhere among Britain's estimated 903.6m domestic bulbs, given that it was a British scientist and inventor who first demonstrated a working lightbulb, at a Literary and Philosophical Society lecture in Newcastle upon Tyne, on 3 February 1879.

On Monday, the 130th anniversary, the chemists will present a Chemical Landmark plaque to the Newcastle society, where a replica of Joseph Swan's pioneering design will be lit.

Although the American Thomas Edison is generally credited with inventing the incandescent light bulb, in fact Swan and Edison were working neck and neck on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and after bitter patent battles, eventually joined forces to form what became the Swan and Edison corporation.

By late 1879 Swan was installing light bulbs in homes and institutions across England, and at the time of his death in 1914 millions of buildings were lit by electricity.

The Society of Chemistry has heard anecdotes of ancient working bulbs, but is now offering a £500 reward for the oldest authenticated one in Britain. In the US a lightbulb at Livermore fire station in California is said to have been donated and installed in 1901, and is still burning. Another bulb, installed at the Fort Worth Palace theatre on 21 September 1908, is now in a museum, but still working.