Urgent Request

[Ed Covington]

I have received a request from a retiree in Italy who is an Industrial Designer and is now setting up a display of his work that he developed in 1951. His setup is complete except for two lamps, which he needs for the setup to have any meaning. This is a call to lamp collectors who might be able to supply these for him. What he needs are two 40-watt silvered showcase lamps (with, I assume, Edison bases.) If anyone has two such lamps that he is willing to part with please contact me at ejcov@frognet.net. The gentleman will be giving me a call this Friday morning (Dec. 19th) to see if any lamps have surfaced. Many thanks to you for considering this request.

[Mónico González]

Hi Ed.
Have you any detailed info. about how these bulbs would be? i.e.: Are crown, side or base-end mirrored?, are A-shaped or reflector ones?.
Because they are for Italy, I guess it may be rated at 220-230v, E27 Edison screw based to meet our European standards.
If you will get any additional info about  requested lamps from the Italian Designer, please let us know. Perhaps here in Spain would be easy to find them.

Good luck and best regards.
M. Gonz?lez.

[Ed Covington]

Thanks, M?nico, for your reply. I think the lamp in question is tubular, perhaps in a T10 bulb (1-inch, or 2.5 cm diameter)and perhaps about 6 inches in length. I also think the voltage should be about 120 volts. As I recall, the filament is a singly-coiled tungsten one that lies essentially along the axis of the glass tube.

[Mónico González]

Ohh, I think is a tubular lamp that we know as "Sofito" but in a half-silvered version.
Here in Spain these lamps are quite common and there are a manufacturer that makes them literally "by hand". The brand is "LAES" (L?mparas Especiales, S.A.)
based in Rub? (Barcelona)
These lamps can be viewed at the following adress:

http://www.laes.com/ProductosLaes1/SOFITOS/SOFITOS.htm

About its lenght, I may to say you that 6" (152,4mm) is a bit short for these lamps. The minimum available lenght of them are 8 7/10" (221mm) for 25 and 40 watt types. This would be taken in mind if the lamps must to match at a precise lenght.

But why 120v?
For Italy the right voltage would be 220-230v (50Hz) the same as here in Spain because this is the standard in all Europe, unless he would want to use a step-down transformer to reduce the 220-230 to 125-130v, the old mains voltage value for general purpose, especially for home distribution lines in most European countries until a few years ago.

Best regards,
M. Gonz?lez.

[This message has been edited by M?nico Gonz?lez (edited December 18, 2003).]

[Ed Covington]

Thanks again, M?nico, for your detailed reply. I don't have all the details of this request but I think it is a U.S.-manufactured lamp the gentleman is looking for. I think his work was performed in the U.S. I believe I misled you by saying that he now lives in Italy. My guess as to the bulb dimension might not be right. It was probably a T8 bulb. A picture of what is being sought is shown below, except the bulb should be half silvered.
 

[James]

Hi Ed,

I have no idea who makes these things in side silver version these days, but have you tried www.aamsco.com?   They seem to keep many old and unusual things.

If you have no success, I have a machine which puts down these silver coatings and provided the lamps are not more than 15" long could do it quite easily.  If you can mail me a few clear lamps I'd be happy to coat them here and mail them back to you.

Or can he just get some strips of polished aluminium and mount them to the showcase behind the lamp?  That might be a better long term solution given the short life of these lamps.  Alanod (who make the aluminium sheet for the louvres of fluorescnet lamp luminaires) do a nice sample pack of A4 paper-sized aluminium sheets and he could probably make a few reflectors out of one of them.

Best regards,

James