Snap in Light Bulbs

Screwing in light bulbs generally works just fine. You twist a bit and then the bulb stays in. The process has also given us hundreds if not thousands of "how many blank would it take to screw in a light bulb" jokes. However having to screw in light bulbs is not always ideal.

This thought came to mind while looking at a celling fixture. To change the bulbs I need to stretch out and stand on the tip of my toes. I can certainly accomplish this task. However, it is an uncomfortable pose to maintain while unscrewing the old bulb and screwing in the new one.

It occurred to me, why can't the light bulbs simply snap in? If the sockets were designed with a ridge, the bulb could just latch onto it. The bulb would be constructed with a plastic base (or one of flexible metal if melting is a problem). To remove the bulb a person would just squeeze the base. It would become 'thinner' and be able to move past the sockets ridge. At that point the bulb could slip back out.

People could be concerned that the base of the bulb would become distorted over time causing a bulb to slip out. This is only likely if a person is installing and removing the same bulb multiple times. In the vast majority of cases, light bulbs are installed once and then left until they burn out.

Where this really has potential is in light fixtures in tall ceilings that normally require a poll to change. The poll would still be needed (you have to be able to reach the fixtures after all), but there would be no twisting required.

As mentioned, modern light bulbs are no sort of terrible tragedy, but this seems like a simple redesign that could make changing them a little bit less work.