BULB DISCUSSION BOARDS > Modern Electric Lighting

Power Groove fluorescent tubes

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Yoshi:
Hi,

Does anybody know anything about the GE fluorescent tubes made in the 1960's that were called "GE Power Groove" tubes? I have been trying to find one ever since I started collecting lightbulbs. I remember that when I was a kid, I went to an old museum that had lots of these tubes, but this same museum has been remodeled and now it has none! I even spoke with the owners of the building and they knew nothing about them; It was too late.

Here's a 1963 ad that shows a Power Groove tube:

Ross:
Hi Yoshi, wow, what a strange thing !  I have not seen one of those before.  I can just read the text on the advert; the claim seems to be that the "grooves" allow a 9 foot arc to be fitted in to an 8 foot tube.  Am I correct in thinking that these longer tubes are only really of use in 220/240 Volt areas ?  8 foot tubes are still used here in the UK, as are pairs of 4 foot tubes in series with the same ballast.

Mónico González:
Hi everybody!

I used to see these tubes here in a general store at my town 15-20 years ago.
They did use about 500 of these tubes for lighting the whole sales room (about 3000 sq. meters surface). I also have seen them sometimes at Metropolitan Subway (Metro) of Madrid.
These tubes did not very common for general purpose here in Spain because its extreme lenght, but they was moderately used for business lighting.
As you have said, the high lenght of these lamps implies a moderately high voltage supply to start and keep the arc running.
Here in Spain there is no problem for powering them because we have a 220-230/380-400 volts supply system, so the easier limiting system for them can be a simple series mounted inductive coil ballast. But don't forget that these tubes were designed in US, where the voltage (120 volts) are lower than in Europe. Such voltages are not a problem if the ballast are constituted by a limited current step-up self-transformer.

The main purpose to mould these enigmatic holes onto the glass wall was primarily intended to obtain an assymetrical axial light distribution around the tube, giving two maximum light lobes emerging each one from opposite sides of the tube. So, the light distribution around the tube on a plane that were perpendicular to the axis, are noticeably "eight" shaped.

About the obsolete tubes from the store I did mention above, really I ignore were went these tubes to when the lighting system of the sales room was updated some years ago. I would like to get some ones, but regrettably I didn't get none of them!

Best regards,
M. Gonz?lez

P.S. My website is online again! http://mis-bombillas.webcindario.com


[This message has been edited by M?nico Gonz?lez (edited January 13, 2004).]

Alan Franzman:
I have seen some of those somewhere before, can't remember where... It must be a place which bought a large stock of them and still has spares.

I think it's a disgrace that a *museum* would lose track of its own vintage fixtures and lamps during a renovation.  What kind of museum is it?

BTW, 8-foot lamps are indeed used here in the U.S.A. on both 120 volt (residential/universal) as well as commercial and industrial 277 volt lighting circuits.  Older fixtures used step-up transformer ballasts, and now electronic ballasts are also available.

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Alan "A.J." Franzman

Email: a.j.franzman at verizon dot net

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Yoshi:
Hi,

I do not know much of these tubes, other than what is written in the ad I posted... My country's voltage is 125-130v, so these tubes may have not been for 220v, who knows?

I would buy these tubes if I found them on eBay or locally, working or not, although working ones are much more preferable of course.

The "museum" I mentioned was some sort of general purpose building, which at the time was a museum. It has become many different things throughout the years, I think it is now a furniture store or something. I don't know when the renovation took place but it may have been many years ago, maybe 6 years. The first and only time I saw the tubes, many of them were dud or about to become dud.

Straight 8 foot tubes are a very normal thing to me, but not these with "power grooves".

By the way, there is a similar fluorescent tube called the "Power-twist", which was made by Duro-Test. I believe these have been discontinued too. (Picture provided by SilverLiner):

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