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W tube lit for the first time. I'm sure many of you remember this W tube fitting and pair of tubes that was given to me end of 2016, since that day I had never really lit the fitting until a few days ago. Of course it being so old was naturally a concern, it dates to 1968. More importantly, was the Quickstart setup going to be too harsh for such a fragile lamp? It was a risk I had to take. Thankfully it struck up first time and ran very quietly, suggesting its had next to no use in the time its been around. The W tube seemed unfazed by the quickstart ballast, no blackening was observed on the cathodes. Overall its an incredibly bright fitting, its easily as bright as a regular 4' T12 tube.

W tube lit for the first time.

I'm sure many of you remember this W tube fitting and pair of tubes that was given to me end of 2016, since that day I had never really lit the fitting until a few days ago. Of course it being so old was naturally a concern, it dates to 1968. More importantly, was the Quickstart setup going to be too harsh for such a fragile lamp? It was a risk I had to take.

Thankfully it struck up first time and ran very quietly, suggesting its had next to no use in the time its been around. The W tube seemed unfazed by the quickstart ballast, no blackening was observed on the cathodes. Overall its an incredibly bright fitting, its easily as bright as a regular 4' T12 tube.

DSC03250.JPG PICT0808.JPG DSC04074.JPG PICT0709.JPG DSC07518.JPG
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Filename:DSC04074.JPG
Album name:Dave / Fluorescent fittings
Rating (1 votes):55555
Filesize:2403 KiB
Date added:09 Jun, 2019
Dimensions:2850 x 2048 pixels
Displayed:84 times
URL:http://80.229.24.59:9232/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=11709
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Comment 1 to 9 of 9
Page: 1

lasagafield   [09 Jun, 2019 at 02:25 PM]
Love this thing! Dunno what it's supposed to be and I don't think it knows what it's supposed to be but whatever it is it's terrifying and it never gets boring. Wonder how many of these 2D-BC-T12-things there are? Are those BC ends? What is it?
Dave   [09 Jun, 2019 at 02:33 PM]
Its basically the very first version of what we know today as the GX53 pizza CFL lamp. It was designed to be a compact fluorescent lamp, rated at 40w they certainly achieved it, but the fragility and expense of them (they were handmade) would have probably played a part in why they weren't so popular.
Danny   [09 Jun, 2019 at 07:12 PM]
Fascinating light this is!
Andy   [10 Jun, 2019 at 08:53 PM]
This is a legendary piece of fluorescent lighting history, it must be looked after incredibly carefully! Makes the 25w Philips W tube I have seem like a Genie CFL in comparison. Cool Cool
fluorescent   [10 Jun, 2019 at 09:41 PM]
Nice to see this lit, it's an absolultely fascinating tube and fitting
Dave   [11 Jun, 2019 at 10:26 PM]
Its in a corner where no one really goes, out the way on purpose so its completely safe. I want so bad to restore the fitting, but I can't bring myself to leave such a rare and fragile lamp floating round in the meantime.
James   [17 Jun, 2019 at 09:35 PM]
Excellent to see this lit, does it work on a standard F40T12 ballast or is the voltage higher? It seems strange that they went to the effort of making parallel tubes with bridged connections, instead of the simple U-shaped curves as used earlier on the Philips TL-W of 1964. And I wonder which of these companies was first with the flat fluorescent lamp.
Dave   [18 Jun, 2019 at 05:41 PM]
I'm unsure of the specs of the tube, I've ahd the tube 3 years and only dared fire it up recently.
FrontSideBus   [18 Jun, 2019 at 11:19 PM]
They might have had trouble with the glass cracking on so many bends, hence the joins?

Comment 1 to 9 of 9
Page: 1

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