BulbCollector Forums
BULB DISCUSSION BOARDS => Antique Bulb Discussion => Topic started by: mandeelion on October 08, 2008, 11:49:33 pm
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A friend of mine has recently aquired a GE floor Sunlamp, probably from the early 1930's. The only way I have guessed that is because of the bulb. The floorlamp was found in a very old house that they bought. It was only because of this website that I know that much. I cannot find any information on the actual floor lamp. I hope that this is not too off-topic for this website, but this is the only informative place I've found so far. The GE company has not been very helpful so far. If anyone can provide us with any information regarding this lamp, I would be very appreciative. I've snapped a couple of pictures and will attach them. The bulb itself appears to be a frosted S-1 (I don't know a whole lot about these. It appears to contain mercury, and the bulb does work) If you have any questions about it, please ask and I'll answer them as best I can. Thanks in advance!
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Hi, this is a well-known lamp and bulb type, dating from 1929 or 1930. The bulb does in fact contain mercury. In operation it strikes an arc in the mercury vapor, causing a plasma discharge which puts out a lot of ultraviolet. The glass the bulb is made of was designed to filter out the shortest UV rays, supposedly making the light safe to look at without filtering goggles. I don't know whether subsequent research has shown the light is nevertheless harmful to the eyes or to the skin (as you probably know, sun tanning significantly raises the risk of skin cancer). There was an earlier version of this bulb made of clear glass, which was in production for only a year or so, and it is hard to find and very desirable for bulb collectors.
Several different fixtures were made that use this bulb (and another similar bulb called S-2, which is smaller and also was available for a short time in the scarcer clear glass). The fixtures all contain current-limiting ballast circuitry; these bulbs canot be connected directly to line power.
I have an original salesman's manual for the lamp and would be glad to share it; perhaps Tim, the administrator, would like to reproduce it on the site.
All the best,
Chris
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I would love to read the manual sometime. I can't believe, after months of searching on the internet, I've found somebody that knows something about it. Thanks so much!
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I have some original sales literature on this lamp too. I'll try and get it posted this weekend.
@Chris - if your literature is different than mine then I'll take you up on the offer of reproducing it here. Thanks for offering!