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Old 17th Jan 2020, 11:09 pm   #1
Tinker1966
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Default Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

I find these strangely fascinating !

I only have 2 proper "antique" bulbs ......

The first I found in a box of tat at an auction
Its made by the Renewable Lamp Co - well, remade to be more precise !
They started in the late 1800's and had all but ceased trading by 1905. They took broken bulbs, cut a hole in the top, made a new filament and resealed the tip of the bulb - recycling way back when !
The second is a Robertson bulb who were an early bulb makers in Hammersmith partly owned by GEC.

Both bulbs still work as the photos show - both obviously being underrun to keep them safe
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Old 17th Jan 2020, 11:16 pm   #2
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

Thank you for posting these photos.

What voltage were they designed for?
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Old 17th Jan 2020, 11:35 pm   #3
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

I've got 3 Robertson carbon-filament bulbs, 16cp (candlepower), for 210V. Bought NOS from J Bull about 32 years ago.

It's interesting that the spec seems to have returned to light output rather than wattage, modern bulbs are specified as light output in lumens. Using conversion factor 1cd = 4π lm and 1cd is approx 1cp, these would be 200 lumens in modern-speak.
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 12:06 am   #4
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

Forum member Zelandeth has been known to mention lighting occasionally......
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 10:18 am   #5
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

Hi, the Robertson / Osram Building still exists in Brook Green Hammersmith, although much is now a Tesco Supermarket.

Having worked at GEC North Wembley and been inside the (closed) Glass Kilns in the Osram Works there, viewing the Osram Dome on top of the historic (probably listed) Hammersmith building is a please whenever I pass.

See:

http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/...ammersmith.htm

Regards - Mike
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 10:58 am   #6
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

I have a few early light bulbs, I think the one in the photo may be the oldest. I believe it to be an Edison one pre 1885 as the arrangement for clamping the filament was made simpler around this date. Possibly for 100 volts. I have run it up gently on a Variac and it works, although there looks like a small crack in the glass.
Mike.
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 12:22 pm   #7
Tinker1966
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

Crikey, thats a relief - its not only me then !!

These are both faintly marked for 210v

There is some outstanding footage and info on that Lamptech page - thanks

Gridiron - that bulb is fabulous, I'd love to find something that early. Where did you get it ? Can't be many about !!
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 2:57 pm   #8
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

I think it was from a BVWS Golborne event from the BVWS stall, Mike.
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 4:31 pm   #9
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

In my 1910-11 GEC catalogue the light output of lamps is generally specified in terms of both British and Hefner candle power. At that date the precious metal Platinum was the only metal that would both wet glass for a good seal, and have a coefficient of thermal expansion that matched glass, so that the seal would not be subject to mechanical stresses during temperature cycling. So it may well have been cost-effective to fit a new filament. A decade or so ago I came across an American lamp collector's web page where he described how he had mended the broken filament of a rare ruby-red carbon lamp by breaking the pip and carefully applying a Carbon-loaded paste to the break, which was at one of the supports. He then got a glass blower to attach a length of glass tube to the remains of the pip and had the bulb evacuated, heating the tube to produce a new pip. The repair was evidently successful. From the GEC catalogue it appears that their carbon filament lamps were sorted during testing into voltage bands only 5V wide, so for example you find lamps marked 105V.
The only vintage bulb I have is a wartime ( pip-less) Osglim that is heavy blackened, no doubt due to extensive use by my parents in the black-out. I did at one time have a brass BC holder for BC bulbs where the pins were aligned at 45 degrees to the contacts, but it got lost in a house move.

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Old 18th Jan 2020, 4:46 pm   #10
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

No, your're not the only one. Here are a few luminary oddities of mine:
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 5:10 pm   #11
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

If you run the carbon coil lamp on DC and move a magnet close by you can slightly stretch or move the coil. I used to do that via a variac, transformer, and rectifier, be careful not to over run and ruin a nice object.
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 5:57 pm   #12
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

At school (a few, 45 odd, years ago) the physics teacher put a magnet next to a carbon filament lamp and we all saw it (the filament) shaking side to side. I must thank the teacher (Tony Cornell, I remember him with great fondness) for being brilliant at getting all of the class to enjoy physics, even the girls, which was rare in those days.

A bit OT, he had a splendid way of simplifying the mathematical bit of physics, "If it makes it bigger put it on the top, smaller on the bottom (of a divide line) and multiply by some constant or other which you can find in a book".
 
Old 18th Jan 2020, 6:43 pm   #13
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

You are definitely not alone in collecting early light bulbs. I have four carbon filament bulbs all with good filaments. Two are 110V and the other two are 240V, one of the 240V bulbs is brand new in its wrapping and is marked GPO with a crown. Out of interest I fired up the other 240V one recently (full mains voltage) and it happily glowed creating an awful lot of heat and not a great deal of light.
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 7:14 pm   #14
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

I've got one like the one shown in the first post.

There's been a previous thread on this subject.

Pictures shown below of it taken a few years ago for the previous thread on this subject. Note the missing spigots the same as the one in the first post.

I'll try to find the original thread later and link to it. Unfortunately, some of the text in my posts around that time got 'hacked' by "someone" within the forum causing nonsensical words to be added, which rather spoiled them - including posts on that particular thread Perhaps the moderators could attend to this issue before I link to it later?

Pictures of the carbon filament lamp below:-
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 7:58 pm   #15
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

Back in the day, it was usual to offer carbon lamps, and later tungsten lamps in 5 volt steps over the range of 100 volts to 130 volts, and in 10 volt steps in the range 200 volts to 250 or 260 volts.

Apart from the multiplicity of supply voltages, it was common practice to deliberately run lamps on higher or lower voltages for various reasons.

When lamp replacement was difficult or expensive, it was common practice to under run lamps so as to extend the life. The electricity thereby wasted was cheaper than say erecting scaffolding to change lamps more often.

In other cases, it was worth running lamps at a higher voltage than intended in order to get more light, and accepting the increased expenditure on lamps.

Theatre foot lights and flood lights usually used red, amber, blue and white lights. The blue tended to be much dimmer than the amber or red, and to counteract this it was common practice to use 200 volt lamps on 220 volt circuits, or 220 volt lamps on 240 volt circuits, for the blue light.

An early text on photography suggests use of then new 100 volt, 1,000 watt tungsten lamps for studio lighting, on 120 volt circuits.
It was suggested to run the lamps at 90 volts via a dropper resistance whilst setting up and planning, and at 120 volts for the actual exposure.

Sports field lighting often over ran lamps. This reduced the KW loading for a given light level. An important factor if it enabled an existing supply to be used, rather than paying for an expensive upgrade.

Old lamp catalogues listed many very odd voltages, that did not correspond to any known standard supply voltage.
150 and 160 volts for example. I suspect that these were either to achieve an extreme life on 120 volt circuits, or for use three in series on industrial 440/450/480 volt circuits.

Smaller decorative lamps came in various odd voltages, some of which were intended for burning several in series on 200 volt to 240 volt circuits.
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Old 18th Jan 2020, 8:01 pm   #16
Tinker1966
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Default Re: Does anyone collect antique light bulbs ?

I'm so glad to have started this thread !
Its great to see some of these fabulous bulbs.
I shall be looking out for some more now.
Both of mine came from boxes of tat at different junk auctions - it was a miracle they didn't get broken.
When I found the Renewable Lamp Co bulb I spoke to a great guy called Roy (it may have been Ray !) who was writing a book about bulbs and gave me a lot of info on my bulb, I don't know if he ever published the book.
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