Author Topic: Big Beautiful Blue Bulb (Read 14218 times)

ALM · « **on:** January 01, 2001, 08:40:00 pm »

Try saying that three times fast!

Any idea on what the heck this is/was used for? I've never seen anything like it. Dimensionally, it is unusual. Please help me identify it. Thanks in advance:

Dimensions approximate:
- 10" tall.
- 15-1/2" circumference at widest.
- 5" circumference at the threaded base.
- 1-1/2" - 1-5/8" diameter at the threaded base.
- 5" diameter at widest.

Chris W. Millinship · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2001, 09:09:00 am »

That looks very much to me like the sort of bulb that was used in factories and warehouses, the blue coloured glass was used to produce a pure daylight-white colour light, rather than the yellowish colour normally emitted by incandescent lights. The daylight-colour light was more pleasing to work under, and actually here in Britain, bulbs are produced for home use that have daylight-blue glass.
It may also have been used in streetlighting, though I don`t expect daylight-blue ones were used outdoors quite so common- they were almost certainly more expensive to produce.

The large base is referred to as a "Mogul" base, and they are still used today, mainly on high-wattage HID lights- sodium and metal-halide for example. Bulbs like this one aren`t at all common in use today (even regular clkear ones)- thanks to the more efficient and longer lived HID types.

Sorry but I don`t know much about its age or value, but I`m sure someone else does...

------------------
-chris

http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/chrismillinship

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Carl Wright · « **Reply #2 on:** January 09, 2001, 01:09:00 am »

I think this bulb was used to take color pictures in a studio. It was used much like blue flash bulbs to take color pictures. It gave the right color temperature so that the picture would look natural. If you ever have taken an available light picture and it has a yellow tint you did not have the right color of bulb. I hope this helps you.

Carl

ALM · « **Reply #3 on:** January 09, 2001, 09:08:00 am »

Thanks, guys.

If you can give me a hand (assuming you haven't already) on a couple of my other "ID Help Request" threads... I would appreciate it.

Scott · « **Reply #4 on:** January 09, 2001, 08:39:00 pm »

Looks like a "stripping room light"-this has nothing to do with buxom girls taking their clothes off. It's used in a tobacco barn with the leaves are "stripped" from the stalks.This type of bulb is supposed to make it easier to select and sort the different colors of leaves on the stalk. I installed mogul sockets 10 or 15 years ago in barns for this very purpose,and the bulbs they used look very similar to the one in the photo.

migette · « **Reply #5 on:** January 19, 2001, 02:08:00 pm »

Hi there can I give my 2 Penny worth about this lamp. Looked in ge catalog and the nearest looks like it could be 500 w PS 40 bulb shape the 40 refers to 40 times 1/8 of an inch this would give the 5 inch dia. Sorry cannot find whether they made it in daylight but agree with Scott that it could of been used in an application which required a good medium to see colours correctly. Remember seeing a bulb of this size when in N Jersey as a youngster along with many others in a basement in a house in Morristown........ does this ring a bell with anybody. Hope this helps....Peter