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Author Topic: My 3 antique bulbs need info  (Read 15278 times)

Offline spiritofshiloh

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My 3 antique bulbs need info
« on: March 29, 2009, 11:30:51 pm »
Hi everyone,I am new here and have been researching a few of my incandescent bulbs onlin but cannot find any info. This seems to be the best site so far. Before I post any pics I need to know if they are worth posting?

 I have 1 bulb 6" tall X 2 1/2" wide.It has a paper sticker inside of bulb base that reads,Packard.Has a Y pipette with 1 filiment.The bottom of base is packed in plaster with a 1/4" nipple sticking out.The filiment was intact yesterday and now I see it snapped. :cry:.I notice by holding the bulbs the filiments jiggle crazy..There are 2 holes on each side of brass/copper base.

The next bulb has has a filiment and the top is fish hooked to the filiment comming from a glass tube.The glass at the base has the number 31 and this base is also packed in a plaster with a nipple.The filiments are intact.The bulb measures 7" X 3 ".
Lastly,the third bulb measures 6" X 2 1/2" abd has plaster with the nipple and the glass that holds the filimenthas 2 black dots.The filiment is in tact.
Thank you,Linda

Offline PCris

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2009, 08:03:50 pm »
Hi Linda,

From your brief descriptions, these bulbs sound very interesting, so by all means, post pictures. Bummer about that one filament! Still sounds like an interesting lamp, especially the y-pipette.

Regards,

PCris

Offline spiritofshiloh

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2009, 08:32:41 pm »
Hi there,thank you for your reply,I'll take some pics now(very carefully) and post them.Yup,bummer on my broken filament.Funny,my late father in law had them sitting on a shelf in his garage for years and nothing happened to them but dust,then I carefully wrap them in bubble wrap,and oops. Ill be back in awhile with pics. :-DLinda

Offline spiritofshiloh

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2009, 09:38:16 pm »
I tried to upload pics.had an error.Will try again. This is the Packard with Y pipette.Packard is printed on paper locked inside bulb.You can see the P to the left of Pipette.

Offline spiritofshiloh

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2009, 09:41:50 pm »
This is the bulb with a fish hook holding filiment.The glass base is stamped 31 .

Offline spiritofshiloh

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2009, 09:46:44 pm »
Thought I would put the whole bulb up of the Packard.Dont want to post too many pics and hog up the board.Thank you.

Offline spiritofshiloh

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2009, 10:26:02 pm »
Hi again,last but not least,a pic of the 31 on the fish hook bulb. I hope someone can give me some history on my bulbs,date,mfg.etc. Thank you. The only thing I could find on Packard is he was James Ward packard,inventor and assigned to Westinghouse. I don't know if he invented the fish hook filiment?. I am sure I am not using the correct terms. I have been reading posts here and you all seem like rocket scientists,LOL.A degree in electricity.


Offline PCris

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #7 on: April 04, 2009, 11:20:27 am »
Hello again!

The Packard with the y-pipette stem has the additional interesting feature of being fitted with a Westinghouse pin base, one of the historic bases in use in the 1880's-90's which became obsolete after the turn of the 20th c. as the Edison threaded base became the standard for most bulb manufacturers. In the early years of incandescent lighting, there were some 14 different base designs used by different manufacturers. Another of the more common of the early historic bases is the Thomson-Houston. Many of these bases were interchangeable meaning, for example, it's possible to find historic lamps made by Edison/GE fitted with a Westinghouse or Thomson-Houston base, I suppose by licensing agreements between various bulb manufacturers. Again, by the early 1900's, the Edison base became pretty much the standard and these other types became obsolete.

I'm guessing your Packard lamp was produced sometime in the 1890's. From the picture it looks like there is a fair amount of carbon build-up inside the glass envelope. This would indicate that the lamp had a fair amount of use in its day. It's possible that the condition of the filament was extra fragile as a result. I would highly recommend that you not protect your bulbs with bubble wrap. Although bubble wrap is good for protecting the glass from breakage, it does transmit vibrations which can be detrimental to preserving the filaments intact. A better solution is to wrap the bulbs individually with cotton, poly-fil, or crumpled or shredded newspaper. Somewhere else on these forums I wrote some suggestions for storing bulbs in response to a question that was posted sometime last year.

By the way, you might want to check out an interesting thread that ran recently about Packard light bulbs on the antiquesockets.com website. Click on user forums and look for antique light bulbs and click, then look for the heading "Manufacturing of Packard Lamps."

The fish-hook was not commonly found in most bulbs, but was used by some manufacturers for bulbs that would be subjected to vibration while in service, such as on a train, for example. I'm not sure who may have invented this, but it seems that various manufacturers used it. This little feature makes this particular bulb all the more interesting, as these are not easy to come by.

Looking at the close up pic of the stem-press, and just barely being able to see the very top of the base, I'm going to take a stab at guestimating that this is also an 1890's lamp, maybe Edison/GE, but would need more pics to go any further.

By the way, I'm not a rocket scientist or an electrical engineer, so don't be intimidated asking questions! I'm sure that some on these forums may be, and no doubt many here know more about this stuff than do I, but I love learning all I can which is one of the great things about this site and its forums. I do something totally non-electrical or scientific for my career. I'm in this because I've always been fascinated by incandescent light bulbs, especially the early ones and try to learn as much as I can about them, and, it's a great hobby!

When you have time, post more pictures. Close ups of the base, stem press, filament as well as an overall shot can help in estimating dates, etc.

Regards,

PCris

Offline spiritofshiloh

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #8 on: April 04, 2009, 12:58:47 pm »
Hi pchirs,thank you for your reply. WOW,I am learning more everyday. :-D It does make sense that the fish hook would help in the vibration if on a train,etc. The carbon build up makes sense also.I do have some fiberfil I use to make pillows so I will store my bulbs in that. I can't believe how just holding a bulb in my hand can vibrate the filiment? I also inheritated a huge amount of TV and radio tubes and a tester from my late father in law. He repaired those items as a hobby in the 40's thru the 70's. Most are still in their original boxes. I will wait one rainy day to sort through them and see if there is a special item of interest. Again,thaank you for the info. I will carefully take more picks of the bulbs and share them here possibly later on this aafternoon. Linda

Offline gnildir1

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2009, 05:30:07 pm »
Hey, dont worry about hogging the forums with the pics...  The more pics, the better as it gives us better details to look at, and maybe something you missed.
Without Edison, where would we be at today?

Offline spiritofshiloh

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Re: My 3 antique bulbs need info
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2009, 01:56:25 pm »
 :-DHi all...I came back to look at bulbs. Unfortunately I had to sell 3 of my 4 bulbs awhile back on Ebay. I really needed the money to feed my horses. :| I miss my fish hook bulb the most. I did get 178.00 on auction and the buyer loved it. So at least it went to a good home. Hood luck to all you bulb lovers. I will be checking back to see more wonderful bulbs. Have a great day.Spirit