Anyone else collect unusual lights?

photonaholic · Jan 18, 2010

Startup, I switched on the white one 30 seconds ahead of the left.

HIMNL9 · Jan 18, 2010

Cyparagon said:
I think what you're describing is a germicidal lamp. Most fluorescent tubes are preheated like that when they start, but it's not really to heat up the mercury - it's to heat up the electrodes. It's like preheating the cathode in an argon laser. This is done so that the "thermionic emission temperature" is reached so that the voltage drop across the electrode itself is much lower. This allows the open-circuit voltage to discharge across the tube. It's like a regular fluorescent tube, but with a quarts wall and no phosphors.

Yes, i know, but this is not a tube ..... is a small lamp, like a 5W old lamp for fridges, with an E14 thread attach, and a single filament ..... the plasma start after few seconds from the 2 wires that hold the filament, and cause the plasma have less resistance of the filament, it stop to glow ..... yes, it was something like a germicide unit, or more exactly, an ozone generator that was not using high voltage.

I also found another strange tube in a tire, always related to ionizators ..... inside, it have a simple piece of aluminium tube connected to the wires (both of them), and outside a "sock" made with a tube of thin metallic net ..... this one was powered with high frequency inverter, cause one of the electrodes is outside the tube .....

EDIT: i've found an image and the spectrum of emission of these lamps (main emission at 254.7nm and 184.9nm) :

Cyparagon · Jan 18, 2010

aryntha said:
Huh. Is that the normal color (red) of the MV 30w on the left, or is that the penning mixture/startup phase?

Since a mercury bulb has lots of green and blue, but very little red, it can make people look like corpses. So many MV bulbs have a fluorescent coating on the outer bulb to convert some of the UV to red. Just after powering on, there is an initial high ratio of UV to visible light, so there is more red from the phosphors than blues and greens from the arc tube.

photonaholic said:
My neon purple cat...blue neon dolphin

Even though every light emitting device in a strange shape tube is colloquially known as a neon light, these are in fact just cold-cathode fluorescent lights. Neon emits only an orange-red light. Any tube that has a coating on it is argon/mercury.

Here are some of my squirly bulbs. After a point, they don't fit in table lamps anymore

14W, 23W, 42W, 62W, 85W, and 14W again.

photonaholic · Jan 18, 2010

Cyparagon said:
Since a mercury bulb has lots of green and blue, but very little red, it can make people look like corpses. So many MV bulbs have a fluorescent coating on the outer bulb to convert some of the UV to red. Just after powering on, there is an initial high ratio of UV to visible light, so there is more red from the phosphors than blues and greens from the arc tube.

Even though every light emitting device in a strange shape tube is colloquially known as a neon light, these are in fact just cold-cathode fluorescent lights. Neon emits only an orange-red light. Any tube that has a coating on it is argon/mercury.

That big monster looks like she throws out some light. (I am getting one like that, I can run it on a 100 watt inverter and deep cycle battery all night. We have a lot of land, so a big powerful light that can run on a battery is highly appealing to me)

Fascinating, I never thought this conversation would go much deeper than "look at the pretty bulbs"

I just had to tell my old lady that I was not the only light bulb geek alive.

Should have seen our Christmas tree, it had flicker lamps (old plasma flame style) bubble lights, C7 and a set of purple mini lights, and 3 strings of LED lights that I replaced all the LEDs with higher end LEDs I ordered in.

Cyparagon · Jan 19, 2010

Here's a closeup of my regent 175W MV arc tube. It looks white to me... 6000k or thereabout.

And here's the arc tube to my venture 1000W MH in BT-36. Notice the electrodes are at the side of the arc tube to allow for horizontal burn position. If the arc rides on the top, the big temperature difference between the top and bottom of the tube creates stress. It shortens the life of the bulb and it is more likely to explode. A few seconds after I turn it on, the arc seems to sit happily in the middle. At full power, however, it is WAY to bright (100,000 lumens, remember) to look at, let alone tell where the arc is inside the tube. I had to use a piece of smoked glass to see. Turns out having the electrodes on the bottom doesn't do much good.

DashApple · Jan 19, 2010

Hey

I have 2 pics atm , first pic is 2 35watt low pressure sodiums and a the long one is a 135 watt low pressure sodium , the far right is a 250 watt metal halid (MH) lamp the other pic is a blue EL panel

i also have about 30 CCFT in different colous they are about 4-5mm diamiter , no pics as i carnt find them :S

photonaholic · Jan 19, 2010

Cool stuff so far. I gotta take more pictures.

daguin · Jan 20, 2010

I've got a few cool lights. This first one was "advertised" as HeNe, but it looks like just Neon

Originally, there was a white, plastic diffuser over this opening

Here's what's inside the head

A second one I have is a little sealed, argon bulb

This one shows a better representation of the actual color of the light. It is a beautiful "purple."

When I took it without flash, the camera messed up the color, but you can see better the brightness of it here. The color is NOT visually blue

This one is one that I made. It is a ~2 inch thick sheet of gypsum. It is ~18 inches at the base and ~20 inches at its tallest. The base is made with red oak and it is lit from underneath by two 15W "exit" light bulbs

This one shows the color of the light shining through it better, but it is from a low angle (to get support for the camera)

Finally many of you have already seen this one

Peace,
dave

photonaholic · Jan 20, 2010

Dave - What was the intended purpose of the DoAll monolight?

Your purple Argon indicator lamp is sweet too.

Nice craftsmanship on the home made gypsum lamp.

daguin · Jan 20, 2010

photonaholic said:
Dave - What was the intended purpose of the DoAll monolight?

Your purple Argon indicator lamp is sweet too.

Nice craftsmanship on the home made gypsum lamp.

I haven't a clue about the original purpose. I got it from a used equipment list. It was listed as a HeNe so I picked it up. You can still find these and similar ones around.

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/DoALL-51N-Monolight-255362_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQitemZ120396609809
http://cgi.cafr.ebay.ca/DoAll-Model...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518f410c66

It's nice to see the argon "purple" without firing up a laser

Thanks. The gypsum lamp sits on top of my armoire at the foot of my bed. I have a piece of "spar" that is ~20 inches long and ~4 inches in diameter, that will be my next lamp (also lit from the bottom).

Peace,
dave

**EDIT** I did some quick research on the DoAll. Apparently it is helium, not neon. It looks like it might have been originally used to check for flatness in "lapping" operations.

Chicxulub · Jan 20, 2010

I too collect various odds and ends of old sources of illumination, but compared to what's in this thread it's nothing special. You guys have some really cool stuff.

photonaholic · Jan 20, 2010

daguin said:
**EDIT** I did some quick research on the DoAll. Apparently it is helium, not neon. It looks like it might have been originally used to check for flatness in "lapping" operations.

I figured it had to have some specific purpose. "Lapping" as in polishing glass?

Something that elaborate is just too complex to be a portable flashlight.

daguin · Jan 20, 2010

photonaholic said:
I figured it had to have some specific purpose. "Lapping" as in polishing glass?
Something that elaborate is just too complex to be a portable flashlight.

I'm not sure if it was glass or not. Apparently the .0000116 inch interference band exposed the amount of variability in some way.

Peace,
dave

Dr_Evil · Jan 20, 2010

Check this out if you want to see some odd lights. I've been tempted to buy something for a while. The shipping isn't cheap though. I can understand why though.

eBay Store - Geisslerroehren: Roehren nach Crookes, Demonstrationsmodelle, Geisslertubes

photonaholic · Jan 20, 2010

I wondered how long before someone mentioned Geissler tubes.

First saw them in science class (physics) and wanted one or the whole set then. (1982) The school set was in a wooden box lined in plush felt.

The teacher hooked them up to a HV coil and demonstrated them, I was in awe.

A set would be worth every penny, and it would look awesome to have them all side by side in a plexiglass display box, all lit up at once.

Trevor · Jan 20, 2010

I picked up one of those really old Edison bulbs (working!) from an estate sale once.

I'll have to put my hands on it...

-Trevor

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