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BULB DISCUSSION BOARDS => Antique Bulb Discussion => Topic started by: deterr on February 28, 2001, 02:12:00 pm

Title: help! is the bulb radioactive?
Post by: deterr on February 28, 2001, 02:12:00 pm

I have a 3000W GE T12 incandenscent lamp bulb from the early 1970s.  It is from a Kliegl theater spot.   Halogen bulbs are now used in place of these.
Apparently, some old high-wattage bulbs had uranium in them to buffer the current on firing.  Does anybody know if this one does - it does seem to have a lot of funny "contraptions" in the wiring, and odd looking grids over the filaments.
It still works, btw.  I use my dryer socket to run it!  But I don't think I will ever run it again because the filament looks so nice in an attached/unbroken state, and the next time I use it could be the last.

thanks for any info,
David

Title: help! is the bulb radioactive?
Post by: ALM on February 28, 2001, 03:06:00 pm

DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN!!!  PUT IN A LEAD BOX RIGHT AWAY AND SHIP IT TO ME!!! I WON'T CHARGE YOU TO "DISPOSE" OF IT PROPERLY!!!

j/k >>> I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a joke.  There are a lot of well-informed people on this site who should be able to get you an answer.

Title: help! is the bulb radioactive?
Post by: Tim on February 28, 2001, 10:19:00 pm

deterr,

I'm not sure if your particular bulb uses uranium glass but it's easy to tell if you have access to an ultraviolet lamp - like the small ones used by antique dealers. Uranium glass will glow green under UV making it easy to detect. If your bulb does use uranium glass than the results would look similar to this example (a vacuum tube pictured here from an ebay auction I came across):
 http://www.ultranet.com/~jimm/images/Uraniumtube2.jpg (http://www.ultranet.com/~jimm/images/Uraniumtube2.jpg)  

It's not hard to spot either without a UV lamp - uranium glass is a pale yellow-green color and you should be able to see some contrast in glass color when comparing to the other glass features in your bulb.

Hope this helps,

------------------
-Tim
BulbCollector.com (http://www.bulbcollector.com)
DewCollector.com (http://www.dewcollector.com)

[This message has been edited by tim (edited February 28, 2001).]

Title: help! is the bulb radioactive?
Post by: James on March 01, 2001, 06:08:00 am

Hi Dave,

Tim is right it is quite easy to spot Uranium glass.  If it is there, it will be at the point where the metal wires pass through the bulb - uranium glass makes a better gas-tight seal than regular lamp glass of that era used to.

However, even if it is uranium glass you have nothing to fear.  It only contains trace amounts of Uranium dioxide and the quanities are so small as to be virtually insignificant.  You are exposed to considerably greater levels of natural background radiation every day.  However, the use of this glass was discontinued about 20 years ago because there is a hazard associated with its manufacturing process.  The finished product is quite safe though.

James.

Title: help! is the bulb radioactive?
Post by: deterr on March 02, 2001, 09:50:00 am

Thanks for the replies.
I'll assume that it isn't too dangerous whether or not it has the uranium glass.
The size code is really T32/2.
I don't have a digital cam yet but I scanned it in case people are curious what it looks like.  The apparent blackening is due to exceeding the limits of flatbed technology!  BTW it isn't for sale if anybody was going to ask.

HOpe this works... http://www.geocities.com/oliveleaf_x/bulb12.jpg (http://www.geocities.com/oliveleaf_x/bulb12.jpg)

ok I see no need to use html tags

David



[This message has been edited by deterr (edited March 02, 2001).]