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Author Topic: A Meridian Lamp??  (Read 14574 times)

Offline Tim

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A Meridian Lamp??
« on: August 10, 2000, 07:00:00 pm »
I came across this one a few weeks ago and assumed right away it was a Meridian lamp. After looking through Howell & Schroeder's (pp. 173) I'm noticing some obvious differences - mainly the shape of the filament and the half frosted globe. The picture in the book shows an anchored filament and the bulb looks larger than the one I found. Mine measures around 3 1/2" in diameter and has a coil shape filament. Also, the base is marked "Pat'd. applied for" which leads into another question - could this have been produced before 1904? Most bases I see like this are marked "Pat. 1904." Anyway the stem structure looks the same but I would like to confirm it's ID before cataloging it.

Any help appreciated:

   


       


     


------------------
-Tim


[This message has been edited by tim (edited September 30, 2004).]

Offline Chris Kocsis

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2000, 10:02:00 pm »
Tim, your lamp is almost identical to my Meridian, except mine has the two 1904 patent dates on the collar and is bigger than yours by about an inch.  Also I can't see the little bulb-shaped patent notice in my stem (it could be stuck at the bottom).  Mine has the same coiled filament.  I would say yours is a little earlier, both from the lack of a date and the ring of (porcelain?) between the collar and the medium base.  Mine has black glass there which is flush with the screw section.  Nice find!

Offline Bob Masters

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2000, 12:42:00 pm »
That's a great looking lamp ! I wonder what it was used for ? Does anyone out there know ?

Offline Tim

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2000, 05:15:00 pm »
Thanks for the info guys and Chris, welcome the forum!

I think it's a Meridian but I'm more curious about the date, mainly because of the features of the skirted base that you pointed out. The bulb does have a patent label in the stem but it's burried to far down to make the dates out.

I'm also aware that Jaeger's Tipless Lamp Co. (different stem construction than the bulb pictured above) produced tipless lamps during this time but I don't think I've ever seen one, or maybe I've passed them by, not knowing what it was. Does anyone have a picture of a Jaeger tipless lamp??

------------------
-Tim

Offline Ed Covington

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2000, 05:30:00 pm »
Tim, with 100% certainty it can be said that your lamp is the tipless, and I stress tipless, Meridian. It was made in two bulb sizes- one being 3-3/4 inches in diameter. As to its introduction, refer to The General Electric Story, 1876-1986, page 26. It states there that the Meridian lamp was developed in 1902 "to meet the demand for high light output without the maintenance required of the arc lamp." A picture of a tipless lamp is shown on that page. The Jaeger lamp had an exhaust tube in the side of the stem-totally different. There were also Meridian lamps that had tips.

Offline Ed Covington

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2000, 10:14:00 pm »
Tim, re the Jaeger exhaust method, below find an image of Jaeger's Fig. 3 from his patent of May 26, 1903 (U.S. 729,182).
 

Offline Tim

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2000, 02:05:00 am »
Ed,

Thanks for the additional information and the illustration. I didn't realize tipped bulbs of this variety carried the Meridian name.

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-Tim

Offline Dave

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2000, 07:22:00 pm »
Speaking of the Jaeger exhaust method, I have some old lamps made in Japan, such as the Dim-Brite lamps (the same lamp can be found on Tim's figural bulb page) and some high wattage Michie lamps (Japanese copies of the large general service lamps, 200 and 300 watts) that were made in the 30s-40s...and they all have the Jaeger exhaust method. This was also used for years by the Tipless Lamp Company in the early part of the 20th Century. I didn't know there were tipped Meridan lamps...thanks for the info, Ed.
DMD

Offline Tim

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2000, 08:21:00 pm »
quote:
Originally posted by Dave:
I didn't know there were tipped Meridan lamps...thanks for the info, Ed.




Speaking of the tipped version - maybe this is one? It was acquired with the Meridian lamp and measures around 4 1/2" diameter and is tipped. After looking through a copy of a 1910 Packard catalog they show similar bulbs both tipped and not tipped - all are termed "Meridian types".

BTW, I'd love to come across an original oversized shade holder and reflector for one of these lamps if anyone may have any leads.....



------------------
-Tim

Offline Ed Covington

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2000, 07:17:00 pm »
I feel that I've created some confusion regarding the name "Meridian". I must admit that I don't have the documentation to comment authoritatively about the name. However, this Discussion Board is a good place to resolve questions. I shall comment, therefore, and hope that anyone who has a different understanding will respond so that we can all benefit. I believe the name Meridian, in general, referred to a lamp that had a round (spherical) bulb. There were carbon, GEM, tantalum and tungsten Meridian Lamps. My guess is that only the GEM filament was used in conjunction with the Burnett-Doane tipless exhaust. I am not aware of any carbon, tantalum or tungsten tipless Meridian lamps. I have a copy of a 1910 Short Catalog of Sunbeam MAZDA lamps in which four Meridian style lamps are listed; all have tips. For the voltage range 100-125 volts two lamps are listed  - at 40 and 60 watts. The 40-watt lamp had a bulb diameter of 3-3/4 inches; the 60-watt lamp had a bulb diameter of 5 inches. Two lamps were listed for the voltage range of 200-250 volts. These were 45 and 70-watt designs. The 45-watt lamp had a bulb diameter of 4-3/8 inches whereas the 70-watt lamp had a bulb diameter of 5 inches. My guess is that the Meridian lamp we are familiar with, where the name "Meridian" is sometimes stamped on the skirted base, referred strictly to the tipless GEM filament lamp. This probably caused no concern for those ordering lamps but it does create some confusion for lamp collectors.

Offline James

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2000, 09:42:00 pm »
Hi!  I am probably asking a stupid question  but what exactly is a Meridian type lamp?  I haven't heard of them in the UK before.

From your photos is looks very similar to what was called the Radiolite in Europe.  Radiolites were carbon lamps introduced at the time when metal filaments came out and basically consisted of an over-run carbon filament of short life which produced similar intensity to an equivalent wattage metal filament.  All the Radiolites I have seen have a similarly frosted crown, often with decorated edges to the frosting, intended to diffuse the light because they are of course much brighter to look at.

The Royal Ediswan Radio-Lite II was also tipless but the method used for that was different again.  The lamp was made with a top exhaust tubulation as normal, and after sealing the stem into the bulb, a small region of glass at the bulb-stem join was softened and blown out and a second exhaust tube attached there.  Then by using the second tube it was possible to remove the original top tubulation and blow the glass there back out to a smooth dome.   That way the final tip-off was concealed within the lamp cap.  A rather complex technique but it was probably necessary to get around another patent!

Offline Ed Covington

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2000, 06:18:00 pm »
James, the tipless Meridian lamp was produced by the General Electric Company as well as the National Electric Lamp Company. It had the new GE "metallized" filament. It always had a skirted base. The Royal Ediswan "Radio-Lite" bulb was exhausted with a tubulated stem as described by Howell and Schroeder. The Radio-Lite lamp I had was 4 inches in diameter with about 60-70% of the bulb frosted. The filament had 2-1/2 unsupported turns. Look at Tim's pictures and you'll see how Burnett and Doane exhausted their lamp.

Offline James

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A Meridian Lamp??
« Reply #12 on: August 17, 2000, 12:52:00 pm »
Hi Ed, thanks for the info.

In the GE Lamp collection at Leicester there are three Radio-Lites, two of which are exhausted through the stem as you describe and the other using the method I outlined before.  It is possible though that this bulb was a non-standard type since the vast majority of the lamps in the Ediswan collection are laboratory prototypes.  I don't have access to the lamps now since I have moved from GE to another lamp company but a colleague in London has a similar lamp which aslo shows this tipless construction if you are interested in further details on it.