Nice little bulb.

[Hunts smoothing bomb]

Originally Posted by The Philpott

I had one of these lamps 'blow'- i don't know what the failure mode was, but there was a loud pop and the 3A fuse in the plug blew in sympathy.

Sounds like the limiting resistor in the base has gone short circuit, a neon gas discharge has a very low resistance if no current limiting is in place.

I remember these well, my grandparents had two reproduction oil lamps on the mantlepiece in their front room with these bulbs fitted. Happy memories...

Cheers

[Lancs Lad]

£5 each, rambo1152? £5!!! My word, that must have been some party.

I don't remember how much I paid for mine, but I'm pretty sure it was nowhere near that much.

In 1988, when I bought my bulb, I thought I was being extravagant if I put five pounds worth of petrol in the car!

Would that have been about 2½ gallons or thereabouts?

[broadgage]

The "OSGLIM" and beehive types of neon lamp are not, so far as I know, manufactured these days, and can have considerable value.

The candle shaped flicker flame neon lamps are still made and therefore unlikely to be of much value, though still attractive IMHO.

The smaller neon flicker flame lamps were and may still be popular in parts of mainland Europe as Christmas lights.

The larger neon lamps were indeed popular in the last war in the blackout. They were permitted to be used under blackout conditions provided that that the lamps were so placed not to be visible from the air.
Entrances to air raid shelters and the like.

[Graham G3ZVT]

There must have been letter and number neons available at one time. I remember having a book with construction details of a 30 line Baird Televisor, and the recommendation was to use an "H" neon.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Lancs Lad

£5 each, rambo1152? £5!!! My word, that must have been some party.

Indeed it was, medieval theme, and still spoken about to this day!

I have three coach type lamps on the front of the house and have fitted modern LED flaming torches. About £5 each delivered from China and this time well worth it.

[Rubberfingers]

There's a few neon bulbs here, including an alphabetic one http://electricstuff.co.uk/neonlamp.html. Regarding the bulb displays in electrical shops mentioned earlier, there used to be a shop in Bournemouth in the 80's that had a display consisting of a vertical board with bulbs mounted on/against it, but not in holders - the bulbs had thin wires soldered to the contacts, and routed through holes drilled in the board, so no wiring was visible from the front. The effect was that of a lit bulb with no obvious means of powering it!.

[G6Tanuki]

I remember seeing loads of those on sale in the gift-shop a couple of decades back when a friend took me to the Catholic shrine at Aylesford.

They also had electric crucifixes which worked ion the same way - a thread about those can be found here: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=52622

[hannahs radios]

Theres still a shop in Weymouth that has a very crowded front window display filled with various electrical appliances, an ancient 1930's vintage iron and an equally ancient 15 amp socket complete with original box! The shop is now a vacuum cleaner repair shop but in days gone by he did TV and radio repairs too. I also remember in the 1970s buying a bulb from Woollies and the girl at the till putting it into a socket to prove it was a good one. I seem to recall them were two sockets, a standard and miniture BC.

[duncanlowe]

I also remember in the 1970s buying a bulb from Woollies and the girl at the till putting it into a socket to prove it was a good one. I seem to recall them were two sockets, a standard and miniture BC.

You remember right, we had to test all bulbs we sold at the till even when I worked there back in the eighties. But I didn't have a meter to check any luminaries I wired for display. I did find something in the stockroom with a battery compartment and meter that I converted to do some basic tests to avoid surprises. I suspect it had been some kind of valve tester back in the days when Woolies had sold those too? Some previous wiring errors by others who looked after the lighting displays had rendered the main isolating switches for the displays 'interesting' in that more than one could be physically switched off, but the welded contact on the double pole switch could actually cause the thing to come back on of it's own accord! I did get permission to replace the switches, though it wasn't easy.

[Lancs Lad]

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense, Dave, but what's the tame Jacob's Ladder effect?

I have tried googling it, but nothing seems to quite fit!

[The Philpott]

Ha ha! I just meant that on some of them the light flicks upwards to the tip of the flame then dies out, like a jacobs ladder but without the imminent danger of electric shock! D

[Lancs Lad]

Thanks, Dave. I've not heard of that lighting effect before

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Gents , I have a couple of this lamp style here, both with crucifixes in them.
I was told they were above the confessional in the local catholic church and signified the priest was available.

Ed

[The Philpott]

I saw a confessional in Ennis with huge traffic lights on the outside- Red marked 'wait' and green 'enter'. It didn't quite fit in with the gothic splendour of the church as much as a neon would have.

Dave

[hamid_1]

Glad to see there are other fans of these neon bulbs. I've also had one of the flickering flame candle bulbs since the late 1980s. My original one disappeared from my parents' house some time ago following a clearout, but fortunately they are still available to buy new. Earlier this year, I got one from the Maplin closing down sale. It's branded EVEREADY (trademark of Energizer Group). The box states the life of the bulb is 1000 hours. That can't be right, can it? I thought neon bulbs last pretty much indefinitely, though there is a phenomenon called sputtering. Due to being bombarded by electrons, small fragments of the bulb's electrodes break off and deposit themselves on the inside of the glass. Eventually the glass becomes blackened, totally obscuring the light, at which point the bulb is no longer useful.

I have some much older neon bulbs, including an Osglim beehive spiral electrode bulb. This may have been a World War II blackout bulb. Half of the glass is painted black, allowing the light to come out in only one direction. It also has the letters L.C.C. printed on it (London County Council?) I also have a couple of vintage neon pygmy bulbs with disc and ring shaped electrodes, shown here: http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec%20She...ygmy%20Int.htm

Another unusual neon bulb which I rescued from the tip about 10 years ago, has flowers / roses inside. When lit, the flower petals glow orange and the leaves glow green, due to a phosphor coating on them. A similar bulb appears on the previously-mentioned Electricstuff website.

Finally, this Christmas, I couldn't resist ordering this from CPC:
https://cpc.farnell.com/premier/li07...idg/dp/LP11772

It's a set of 7 flickering neon candles arranged on a wooden arch. I'll attach a picture, as the link is likely to go dead soon. The effect is quite fascinating, since the individual bulbs all flicker slightly differently. Almost all forms of lighting are being replaced by LEDs nowadays, which undoubtedly have their benefits, but still it's good to see some new old technology making a comeback.

[mark2collection]

It's fascinating how many of these lamps have emerged.

We too have a candelabra, bought from a garden centre some 12 years ago, looks exactly like the CPC item above, think it was £15?

We've also made an attempt at a medieval 'twist' in the lounge. The wall behind the sofa has a tapestry from Warwick castle, bought about 6 years ago, either side of said tapestry some twin/brass 'candlestick' holders, with a pair of SES flickering lamps just like the ones in previous posts from other members.

If anyone would like a picture, I'll gladly upload. Currently we have The Snowman & Snowdog tapestry up, but can put the normal one up for a photo.

Mark

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by The Philpott

I just meant that on some of them the light flicks upwards to the tip of the flame then dies out, like a jacobs ladder but without the imminent danger of electric shock! D

Originally Posted by Lancs Lad

Thanks, Dave. I've not heard of that lighting effect before

There is a description of Jacob's Ladder here.

[broadgage]

When production of OSGLIM and similar lamps ceased, an alternative "neon nightlight" was sold by various retailers.

It was a translucent plastic moulding fitted with a B22 cap and containing two small neon pilot lamps and dropper resistances.
Usually too dim to be much good as a nightlight.

I modified a couple by fitting 6 neons in two series strings of three. More light, and still only used about 2ma from the mains.

Another and perhaps better alternative consisted of a very small transformer with a B22 cap and an MES bulb holder connected to the 6 volt secondary of the transformer.
A cheap and long lasting 6 volt 0.3a radio panel bulb gave more light at a lower energy cost than a 5 watt neon bulb.
If an even dimmer light was wanted, then a very under-run 12 volt pilot bulb could be used and would last almost indefinitely.

[robin0577]

They're still readily and fairly cheaply available in most electrical wholesalers.

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_In...dle/index.html

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by duncanlowe

You remember right, we had to test all bulbs we sold at the till even when I worked there back in the eighties.

If I remember correctly, for safety the Woolworth lamp tester had two push buttons, and required both hands to perform the test.

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

I remember seeing loads of those on sale in the gift-shop a couple of decades back when a friend took me to the Catholic shrine at Aylesford.

They also had electric crucifixes which worked ion the same way - a thread about those can be found here: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=52622

They are also often used in the "Ner Tamid" in a synagogue. It means Everlasting Light, I wonder if they keep a spare bulb .
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ner+...w=1280&bih=953